Some Drabble
by corikane
Summary: I put together my 'drabbles' - those fanfic posts on tumblr that are too short to put up individually. Each has its own chapter but they don't make a story. No copyright infringement, as always, neither on characters, plot mentioned or songs quoted. Enjoy. - Oh, and they're all PP but revolve around Beca, Chloe and Aubrey:
1. Bechloe

Bechloe

The thing about Beca Mitchell - at least where Chloe Beale was concerned - was that she was so unflinchingly herself. She wasn't the kind of girl that wanted to be a Bella, who wanted to sing Mariah Carey chart toppers and dress up in a tight skirt and vest. She didn't need all that to be sexy, either. She just was. With her ear spikes, and her great variety of plaid shirts and tanks - all the things that screamed 'I know who I am, thank you very much,' she was one of the singular most attractive people Chloe had ever encountered.

Of course, these things were also the ones Aubrey hated Beca for. Aubrey didn't deal in individuality, she wanted a group of Bella clones - bikini-ready bodies, beautiful faces, enchanting smiles. Underneath Beca's clothes and attitude were all these things - Chloe had seen it in the shower stall that one day - but her outer shell was hard, it was resisting, intriguing - and so very cute.


	2. Mitchsen

Mitchsen

Beca liked to think she had Aubrey all figured out. Tight-up control freak. She wouldn't have her wear her ear-spikes, she did't like her 'attitude,' she wouldn't let her help with the music arrangements… whatever. But then there were the things that seemed out of character: her friendship with Chloe, that secret smile when the Bellas did good - any Bella, even herself. Aubrey would work them for hours with choeography, cardio, singing and everybody would grouse but at the end of rehearsals Aubrey would smile proudly at them and they all lived for this moment, they all worked for that smile.

Even Beca herself. It was baffling to the young brunette, the influence Aubrey had over her, how she would take another look into the mirror before leaving her room, to check if she looked okay. She knew Aubrey didn't care for her sense of style… still, she looked in the mirror. It was more than wanting the respect of someone older, someone more experienced - if Beca could only find out what it really was, what it all meant. Why she wanted to impress Aubrey - and why she wanted to know what made the blonde tick.


	3. Chaubrey

Chaubrey

Aubrey loved Chloe. There had never been anything as easy as that one emotion in her whole life. There had never been anyone showing her the kind of acceptance and unguarded trust that Chloe had given her - unasked. Sometimes even unwanted. And Aubrey knew that most times she was undeserving, too stressed to appreciate the gift of friendship that the redhead had given her. Yet Chloe wouldn't take it back, she would just give her more - more smiles, more encouraging pats on the back, more time to consider what it all meant.

Aubrey loved Chloe. And it was the most complicated and confusing emotion the tall blonde ever had to deal with. In a life where criticism had been a constant, Chloe gave her the choice to say what she wanted. But what she wanted was so much bigger than the girl anyone had imagined Aubrey Posen could be - anyone but Chloe, of course. Because the redhead imagined her as the best, the brightest, the most deserving. And for Chloe Aubrey wanted to be all those things - and to Chloe she could never confess that she wanted to be one more thing: her all.


	4. Get the Party Started

Later at the party:

Beca had only just entered the room, being a little late because of all the 'good work'-pats on the shoulder and other congratulatory words she had had to endure from all the acas present. But as she neared some of her fellow bellas talking together, her captain - and now friend - Aubrey squeeled.

"Beca!" she called out and then whooped throwing her arms in the air as she came over to the younger woman. She did a little sexy happy-dance and Beca could only guess at the amount of alcohol that had already been consumed by her friends. But she didn't mind Aubrey's enthusiasm at all, it amused her and made her happy. It told her that she did good. And so did Aubrey.

"You were amazing tonight," the tall blonde congratulated her and let her arms sink on Beca's shoulders. She pulled her into a tight hug as Beca's arms found their way around the blonde's waiste.

"We were all pretty awesome," the brunette said.

"Aca-awesome," Aubrey corrected and Beca laughed.

"Aca-awesome," she agreed. Aubrey pulled back a little, just to look into those enticing dark blue eyes. They smiled at each other, both a little surprised at how things had changed between them, how the atmosphere had shifted.

Aubrey's right hand went to Beca's hair, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. then she cupped her cheek. She hadn't meant for it to become so… physical, this intimate but a sudden notion told her to pull Beca in… for a kiss. and she did.

It wasn't even romantic, it was more of an exuberantly smiling we-did-it-kiss. Nothing to write home about. They laughed, they smiled some more.

"There's a lot of kissing going around tonight," Beca commented.

"Yeah, I guess… for you at least," Aubrey agreed. "You simply made us all fall in love with you tonight."

Beca smirked but her eyes told Aubrey that she was quite surprised at the admission, they were round.

"Are you quite drunk?" the DJ asked.

"Not as drunk as i could be," Aubrey gave back and they laughed again. Aubrey's hand was still on Beca's face, carressing lightly. They looked into each other's eyes. Aubrey leaned in once again, this time their lips lingered, capturing each other. This was a kiss, alright. Nothing exuberantly triumphant about it.

Beca puled back.

"Jesse… and I…," she stammered.

"Right," Aubrey smiled and let go of Beca. She was about to leave the brunette standing there but Beca had not yet let go of her, her hands tightened their grip on Aubrey's waiste. The blonde turned back to her.

"Don't go, just don't," Beca begged and pulled Aubrey back to her. They felt back into their embrace and their kiss. The atmosphere had indeed shifted.

A short distance away Amy was staring at the two women kissing.

"So, that's what it was all about between them? I thought they just didn't like each other…" she murmured.

"Could have told you they got the hots for each other," Cynthia Rose beside her said. Amy looked at her:

"Next time just do."


	5. Goodbye Love

Goodbye Love

Beca stood waiting for the bus that would take her back home - hopefully. Home and away from this a cappella-nonsense. It had been a mistake, all of it. Her friendship with Chloe, her starting to like all the the other girls (even Aubrey a little), and, of course, spending time with Jesse - because now, it all bit her in the ass.

She hadn't wanted any of this! It was her dad's fault! And Aubrey's! And, yes, Chloe's. If the redhead hadn't talked (or stalked) her into auditioning, all this wouldn't have happened…

Okay, so maybe she had overstepped with inserting Bulletproof into their mix but, hell, the audience was almost asleep by the time she had started singing. Was Aubrey really so blind as to not see this?!

"Beca?" The feshman turned and looked with blazing eyes at Choe who stood sheepishly a few feet away.

"What do you want, Chloe? I'm really not in the mood," she told her plainly but also felt some of her anger draining away in the soothing presence of her friend.

"I'm sorry for what Aubrey said. She's…"

"It doesn't matter, Chlo. We all know how Aubrey is, I shouldn't have challenged her. And now it's over," Beca interrupted.

"Please don't say that," Chloe pleaded and the blue of her eyes seemed to turn an even lighter shade as she met Beca's look sadly. "I know that this was… a disaster, okay? And it's partly my fault. I shoud have sat Aubrey down, talked this through with her, made her… listen to new ideas. I just… it seems like all we do is fight at rehearsals and I didn't want to fight at home also. I took the easy road, I'm sorry."

Beca shook her head, now more sad than angry.

"It's your last year, I'm sure you have a lot of other things to worry about besides the Bellas." The brunette turned to where she could see a big greyhound bus making its way down the street, just now not more than a small speck on the horizon.

"That's no excuse. I'm the co-captain and I feel like I let everyone down."

"You didn't, really. Chlo… It's not just about that. Where does Aubrey get off to tell me who I should or shouldn't be with? That's tyranny. I don't stand for that shit, dude. She's not my mom - in fact, I wouldn't tolerate that kind of control from my mom. Aubrey and I just don't mix well. It's probably better this way."

They stood, both sadly looking into a future that would sever the fragile bond they had created.

"I don't wanna lose you, Beca," Chloe said softly and the brunette looked back at her, surpriised. There was a deliciously warm feeling spreading across her chest and she smiled.

"You're not gonna lose me, Chlo. We'll stay friends," Beca said and knew that this wasn't all she wanted to be with Chloe. But things needed yet to be left unsaid. She wasn't ready to say more, make a greater effort.

Chloe nodded at Beca's words.

"Please come back to the Bellas," Chloe then said but Beca shook her head.

"Aubrey won't allow it. And I'm not sure I want back - not the way it is. There needs to be space for change. Aubrey doesn't want that."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment, hearing the first roar of the greyhound coming closer, shortening their time together.

"Think about it," Chloe said and Beca nodded. She wasn't ready to give in, she wasn't ready to let Aubrey run over her again - especially not with her wild assumption of whom she had a toner for.

"You could still ride back with us, you know," Chloe told her.

"Nah, I'll be okay. I'll probably be home earlier than you all," Beca said referring to the bus they had rented and that still stood in the pampa somewhere without gas. "I also want to think some things through, you know."

"About the Bellas… or about… Jesse?" Chloe tentatively asked. She bit her lower lip which looked quite endearing but was an expression of insecurity in the otherwise confident Bella.

"Jesse?" They both could feel the rumbling of the bus in their feet now. They only had a couple more minutes until it would stop and take Beca with it.

Instead of an answer Chloe just smiled softly at Beca. It seemed to say that she understood, something, Beca wouldn't even have said of herself. She certainly couldn't understand how she liked being with Jesse but craved being with Chloe. It was confusing, but it was how she felt. She just couldn't tell the redhead about it yet.

"Jesse is the least of my problems right now, Chlo," Beca told her friend honestly. They looked into each other's eyes. Hours seemed to pass but it was only moments and Chloe seemed once again to understand. She beamed at Beca as the bus finally stopped beside them.

"I have to go," Beca said and the older woman nodded.

"I'll see you at Barden," Chloe said and followed her instinct to hug Beca. It was a tight motion, a lingering touch and then Beca was free again and dazed at how intense a simple hug could be.

"I'll call you," she stammered as she made her way up the steps into the bus and paid her fair. The doors closed behind her and as she walked the narrow aisle to the back of the bus, she saw Chloe through the windows, disappearing quickly. She sat down and turned to look out back. Chloe still stood on the sidewalk, her hand raised in a wave. Beca waved back. She felt a slight melancholia settle over her.

Would she really call? Or was this just something she said but would never do? But even as she thought this, her stomach clenched in anxiety. She couldn't even anticipate not hearing Chloe's sweet voice again, not seeing her again… never being touched by her again.


	6. Close to You

Close to You

Chloe looked up from her book to where Beca sat at her computer mixing music. The younger woman was nodding her head and smiling unconsciously, submerged in what she liked doing best. Chloe grinned.

"Beca," she called out to her friend who looked up startled. Chloe pointed at her ears and the small brunette took her earphones off.

"What?"

"Come over here," Chloe told her and beat the mattress next to her. She turned beseeching eyes at Beca and the two women smiled at each other, knowing that Beca rarely denied Chloe anything if she looked at her that way.

"Why?"

"I wanna show you something," Chloe breathed and Beca felt herself flush.

They had this thing going. She didn't exactly know what it was, but ever since she and Jesse had broken off their very losely tied relationship Chloe and she had become closer. Spending insane amounts of time together, hanging out, sometimes going out, and flirting. Usually Chloe was the one doing the latter but lately Beca had become more comfortable with flirting back.

"Show me something? Now that sounds promising," Beca teased and pulled her earphones out of the loudspeaker, so that the music wafted into the room. She turned it lower and went over to her bed. She slouched down next to Chloe while the redhead closed her book and let it fall to the floor.

Chloe leaned back, into Beca by her side.

"So, what did you wanna show me?" Beca asked looking into Chloe's sweet blue eyes.

"You have to come closer or you gonna miss it," Chloe said seductively, despite the fact that they were practically sitting in each other's laps already.

"Closer?"

"Mhhh-hm," Chloe giggled as Beca flushed a little more but did as she was told. The small brunette tried very hard not to touch Chloe but shimmied closer.

"Like this?"

"Closer," the redhead breathed, feeling her own skin heat at the contact.

And Beca still moved a little closer, their bodies touching in a couple of very enticing places now though their hands were deliberately not. They weren't even sitting anymore, it was all so very warm and sweet-smelling closeness.

"Is this close enough?" Beca whispered.

"Almost," Chloe breathed as she looked at Beca's lips, into her eyes, back at her lips. And she leaned in closer than ever… and started tickling Beca.

Laughter burst out of the small brunette and Chloe worked her fingers into her sides and over her belly.

"Stop, Chlo… damn…" Chloe laughed with her friend who tried to get a good grip on her to push her away without really pushing her away. They fought for dominance but as these things go this was just playing - with attraction. And before they knew it the light atmosphere shifted again and instead of hands doing all the work, lips clashed and they kissed.

The exchange had already been heated, now it's intensity burned them both and desire flared. Chloe pulled Beca close, their bodies now touching at their entire lengths. Beca moaned into Chloe's mouth when she felt her breasts touching the redhead's. It was a tingling feeling all over, one that took her breath away so she had to break away from Chloe. But only for a second, only to fill her lungs and then reattach herself to the taller woman.

"Mhhhmmmm, Becs," Chloe breathed into her.

They were too engrossed in each other to hear the door open and close but then there stood Beca's roommate at the door and she wasn't happy about what she saw. The hanging out had been bad, the flirting worse but this was the height of awkwardness and bad timing.

Kimmy Jin cleared her throat and the two women on Beca's bed strove apart.

"Oh, erm…," Beca caughed. "Kimmy JIn, hi."

"I'm back," the Asian-American said. "And I'm not going out again," she felt compelled to clarify.

"That's… nice," Chloe said but she didn't look very happy about the news. She looked at Beca.

"Yeah, erm… nice," Beca agreed with both the words and the unhappy look on her face. Was this how it would be from now on? Kimmy Jin walking in on them, being around, looking at them like… she usually looked yet still less amused?

Beca locked eyes with Chloe as Kimmy JIn sat down at her computer, opening it and seemingly forgetting that other people existed in her little universe. Chloe looked over her shoulder for a second, then she shrugged and leaned forward.

"I wanted to show you something else," she whispered into Beca's ear and then kissed her again. The heat wasn't gone but they kept it at bay as their mouths slowly explored each other.

Beca smiled into the kiss. This was better, this was good. She should have known better. Chloe wasn't about to let anyone ruin her fun, and neither was Beca anymore.


	7. So Emotional

So Emotional

"Beca."

"Hm?"

"You're staring," Aubrey told the small brunette who was sitting across from her engrossed in her thoughts - or otherwise with Aubrey's face which the older woman didn't quite believe.

"I'm not… what, no. I was just thinking," the Bellas captain said and sighed.

She was supposed to be studying but her mind just went wandering - into her non-existent social - no, make that love-life. She had a social life, she went out with the Bellas every now and then, went to parties, had fun - just not the kind of fun one was having with one other person, one singular, attractive person. She was feeling lonely lately which was weird because this usually didn't happen to her. It was probably Jesse's fault. He was her first ever relationship and now that it was over… Beca missed some things… things that were not possible doing alone, like kissing…

"You're doing it again," Aubrey roused her out of her thoughts once more.

"I'm… sorry, Bree. I'm just… not in the mood for…," she looked at her book, not even knowing what she was supposed to be studying right now. "… the European plague right now." She shut the book with a thud.

"That's fine with me, Beca. I'm just here because Chloe asked me to help you… it's not like I care if you flunk your history exam, get thrown out of college and let the Bellas down," the blonde helpfully provided why they were sitting in the library at this hour, poring over books.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just… Do you ever just… like… arpahioehfuarh?"

"No, never, because I don't know what you're talking about," Aubrey offered with a slight smile. Beca rolled her eyes.

"It's nothing. I just… can't stop thinking about… kissing… and stuff," Beca confessed and regretted it a second later. Aubrey was really not the person she should talk to about this - they weren't even that good of friends. Aubrey merely tolerated her because she knew stuff about music.

The blonde smiled bemusedly and Beca blushed.

"You're horny," Aubrey surmised.

"No, not… gosh, it's got nothing to do about sex, I mean… not… really…," Beca stuttered. "It's more… about being with someone… hell, forget about it," she snapped at Aubrey and opened the book again. She looked at it as if she was honestly attempting to read it but the other woman's hand came down on the book and Beca sat back in surprised.

"Aubrey," she exclaimed.

"What? Come on, Beca, what is this about? You're obviously not even trying to study. And you're talking about… wanting to kiss somebody with me? Of all people? You must be desperate. What's going on?"

"I don't know… I just… you can't tell anyone, okay? Please?" Beca begged of the older woman.

"Who would I tell? The only person interested in this kind of stuff is Chloe…"

"You can't tell Chloe, Promise, Aubrey!" Beca insisted.

"All right, I won't tell her anything. I promise." Aubrey smiled at Beca, it seemed to the brunette that it revealed a secret the blonde knew about. "So?" Aubrey prodded.

"I just… feel a little lonely lately. And I don't even know why or how. I never feel lonely. When I feel down, I have my music. I just make a mix and I feel better, you know. Usually that's how it works."

"But not anymore?" Beca shook her head and pushed her hair behind both her ears. Her hands stayed behind her head and she looked at Aubrey, a little lost.

"I don't know what's happening. I just… it's like a hole inside me that I can't fill," Beca said.

Aubrey looked like she wanted to say something witty but then thought better of it. Beca was obviously desperate or she wouldn't have confided in her.

"We all have phases like that, Beca. Especially, after a break-up with someone… we loved?" She probed. They had never talked about Beca's break-up with Jesse, or her relationship with the Treble. Aubrey only knew of one person Beca had talked about him at all - Chloe.

"I… he was my first real boyfriend. We were close and all…" but she shook her head. "I'm not sure I loved him but I… was kinda in love with him, I guess. It's difficult to say now after… well, what he said. And what I said… we weren't exactly nice to each other in the end."

"So, now that you're over the pain of the break-up you start missing the good things, huh? That's normal. We all crave some… human connection," Aubrey said.

"Even you?" Beca grinned.

"No, I'm no mere mortal, I'm above all that. What do you think? That I'm made of stone?"

"Sorry, that was… mean," the brunette apologized.

"Yes, it was. I'm only trying to help you."

"I know and I'm being an ass about it. I'm really sorry. I guess, you're right. I'm over Jesse." Aubrey nodded.

"Maybe you should start dating again," she advised.

"Yeah, like that's so easy. You know, I'm always baffled when people say something like that. Like it's the easiest thing in the world. Why not hook up? Just go out again. Well, it's not like there's a line of guys who want to go out with me, you know. And I… I don't want to go out with just anybody, just because they think I'm… cute, or whatever…," Beca ranted until she saw Aubrey smiling again. The brunette rolled her eyes. "Do I sound like a total loser?"

"No, you sound like a sensible woman. Nobdoy says you should just go out with the next guy who thinks you're hot, no woman should. You should go out with someone who likes you, admires you, knows how talented you are and shares your passion for music… someone who is… hot. Someone you trust and care about." Aubrey said and found Beca staring at her with wide eyes.

"The only question is: where to find this perfect specimen," Beca said sarcastically.

"Well, I know such a person," the blonde said a little reluctantly.

"What? What.. who? Someone a cappella?"

Aubrey nodded.

"How? Who?"

"The person I live with," she finally said.

"The person you… but… you live with Chloe," Beca said with a confused look. Again Aubrey nodded. "What are you…. what…?"

"You know what I mean, Beca. You know…"

"No, don't," the small brunette pleaded.

"Yes, Beca. Chloe likes you. She's head over heels for you. Has been since… probably that first day at the fair," Aubrey told Beca who was still shaking her head.

"She's…"

"She's in love with you, Beca, and I think you know that. And I think… you have feelings for her, too."

"No, I… she's… my best friend, Aubrey. That's all. We're not… There's nothing going on there," Beca tried to reason but the words came out of her with little meaning and less conviction.

"If you think that you're a greater fool than I took you for," the blonde said. They looked at each other, both stubborn but Beca was the one who finally looked away. Down at her books which should have been her focus of attention but were nothing to her.

She felt her heart beat rapidly in her chest as Aubrey's word sank in, as she let them sink in for the first time. She had know, secretely, keeping it so close to her that she hadn't even let herself know. But it was true. She had feelings for Chloe, had seen something in Chloe's eyes that was not friendship. But how could she answer to the silent plea of blue eyes? How could she even start to understand what this craving was that surface every time they were alone or simply incredibly close? She had never felt like that for another woman - not for another person, really.

"Well, I guess, I taught you everything you needed to know tonight," Aubrey's words roused her as the blonde started packing her things into her bag.

"You shouldn't have told me," Beca said slowly.

"Maybe not but… God, sometimes it's just so frustrating to see you two dance around each other. And, I swear, if I have to see either one of you throw yourself at some… cute but heedless feller again I'm gonna throw up. And you know that's not a pretty sight." The blonde looked earnestly at the younger woman. "Chloe's never gonna make the first move, Beca. So it's up to you now. But you better be ready for a whole lotta lovin' 'cause we both know that Chloe doesn't do anything half-assed, right?"

Beca smiled a small smile.

"No, she's… 100%, always."

"That she is. And if you're not ready for it, it's gonna hurt her. And you don't wanna do that," Aubrey warned.

"'Cause you gonna kill me?" Beca guessed.

"After I tortured you for a long time," Aubrey confirmed. Beca nodded, she seemed thoughtful.

"You know… society makes a big deal out of identity and labels and all that. But lesbianism isn't all that scary, neither is bisexuality or simply finding another person attractive. The only thing you have to figure out right now is… when you think about those things… kissing, being close to someone… who is the first person that pops into your head?"

"Chloe," Beca said without hesitation.

"Exactly," Aubrey agreed. She lifted her bag over her shoulder and waved at Beca before she went for the exit.


	8. Hands Touching Hands

Hands Touching Hands

Chloe was sitting on Beca's bed, her eyes glued to some psychology textbook. She was reading, making notes, every now and then she would push her hair behind her ear. Not that Beca was watching her the whole time, or something. She just looked over sometimes, for a little while, until she felt the now familiar tug at the corner of her mouth, the smile that appeared when she looked at Chloe, when she was alone with her.

Like tonight.

Of course, she was supposed to study something, or write an essay, instead she tried to mix some songs. Only that didn't work so well either tonight. The songs didn't fit, the rhythm didn't mesh, the beat was all wrong - all songs, all rhythms, all beats. Or maybe Beca was simply not in the mood.

Not that this had ever happened before. Music was her life force, it was the essence she dug into, all she ever needed to lift her up or distract or simply enjoy. Not anymore - or so it seemed.

Beca took her headphones off her ears and lay them on the desk next to her laptop. She turned her chair so that she could watch the woman who had set up her studying post on her bed, office surplies all around her. Chloe was impossibly messy with all those things but her notes - they were organized and structured, always to the point. It was astounding, Chloe was simply astounding.

She now looked up, smiled at Beca and scrunched her nose.

"Already finished with mixing?" she asked the smaller girl but Beca shook her head.

"I'm not really feeling it tonight," she confessed and walked over to the bed. Chloe took some of her material and put it on her right, cleaning her left for Beca to sit by her. Beca did, her legs crossed, her hair falling into her face to cover the slight blush that always crept up her skin when she was near the attractive redhead.

Chloe reached out her hand and took Beca's. The junior looked up into those shining blue eyes that had captivated her from the moment she first looked into them.

"What kind of songs were you working with? Any particular genre?" Chloe asked.

"Actually I was trying to make a mix out of a couple of songs from Aubrey's list. You know, those ladies from the last century songs… I don't know, some of them are really good but… I feel that they need somethng modern to mix them with," she told Chloe who nodded.

"A little like the Bellas, huh?" the redhead asked. Her fingers held Beca's losesly but started to carress. The brunette wasn't sure Chloe was even aware of what she was doing and lost track of the conversation for a moment. Chloe's questioning look brought her back to it, though.

"Yeah, maybe," she said and dared to move her fingers against Chloe's. It was exhilarating, her heartbeat picked up with the feeling of skin on skin.

"I know what you're thinking - that Aubrey is just some nutty control freak and the old Bellas were a bunch of… bitches, mainly… but we weren't. We just wanted to… beat the guys and were trying to fit the profile. And it worked until…"

"Aubrey lost her cookies?" Beca grinned and Chloe smiled a little, too.

"Yeah, that was a little unexpected. Not completely, not for me. I mean, I know about her anxiety problem and all, so… But don't worry, it won't happen again. Not as long as she feels in control," the redhead assured her new friend.

Beca nodded. She was looking at her hand that was now holing up in Chloe's slightly bigger one. It felt so warm and comfortable, at the same time exciting, sexy. Her own thumb rubbed Chloe's, felt it, felt her.

"I think she'll losen up at some point, let us come up with new ideas, new songs. And maybe mixing some of the old songs with new ones… she might like that," Chloe continued when Beca didn't answer. She was aware of what was happening and her heart beat possibly even faster than Beca's was. She had felt the pull since she had first seen the freshman and it had gotten stronger, the need to touch her was overwhelming most of the time and she had given into it. But not like this, not this intimately.

"I don't think Aubrey likes much of anything I do. She simply doesn't like me," Beca said with a slight grimace. She looked up at Chloe, Chloe at her and they smiled shyly at each other. They were aware of what they were doing, they liked it, they wanted to just sit and continue this - indefinitely.

And their hands kept carressing, feeling skin. They lost each other in the other's eyes, not a thought on what they had been talking about before. Their breaths grew labored even from the simple touching of two hands.

And it was really too simple, too little. And they both knew that they needed more. More contact, more touch. Beca leaned forward a little, unsure for a split second if this was right but seeing her movement mirrored gained confidence. She licked her lips, another mirrored gesture and then they met. Lips touched in a soft kiss, parted, touched again not so softly. Hungry mouths shifted against each other, hands pulled each other closer, battled suddenly for dominance, as their mouths did, as their tongues did.

For eternal minutes all that counted was touch. Only breath grew more important than the need and they parted, looking at one another again.

"I think she likes you just fine," Chloe said and smiled that bright smile of hers, the one nobody else could quite match. "She'll come around, you'll see," she promised and then started packing her things together.

Beca was too stunned to say anything, too overwhelmed to stop Chloe when she finally closed her backpack and stood. Once again the redhead took her hand in her own and Beca felt herself melting to her core. Her breathing hitched.

"You have really nice hands," she said before she gave it a squeeze and left.


	9. A Study In Desires

A Study in Desires

"Chloe…" It was a familiar voice that roused the redhead out of her thoughts. It's sexy cadence, though, was unexpected and that part rippled through her like a fever.

"Beca?" Chloe looked around her at the empty tables where nobody but her was studying at this time of night. The library looked desolate to her now that she was looking at it, a little creepy, too. And then there was that voice again:

"Chloe…" Again with the sexy. The senior could feel the blood boiling in her veins, responding to the months of suppressed attraction since she had seen Beca - in all her glory, in the shower. A sigh worked itself free from her mouth and it elicited a response: a deep chuckle from the other woman who still hadn't shown herself.

"This is getting creepy, Becs. Where are you?" A hand on her shoulder was the answer but it was so unexpected, so close that Chloe jumped.

"Shhhh, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," Beca apologized, leaning down to breathe the words into Chloe's ear.

"It's okay. Why're you here? I thought you were at the game with the others," Chloe said. She would have liked to look at Beca while they talked, to assure herself that the freshman was okay (because this wasn't how she usually behaved) but Beca still stood behind her. She had her hands on Chloe's shoulders, not using any pressure but still pinning her to her seat. Chloe could feel their warmth through the flimsyness of her top.

"The game's been over hours ago - we won," Beca told Chloe. Her hands slid from their resting place down the other woman's arms, carressing skin now. Chloe gasped at the touch. So strange that her body would react so suddenly, despite the hour, despite the slight discomfiture she felt at Beca's unusual behavior. But she had dreamt of a less than friendly touch, had yearned for something more than chasteness. And here it was. Beca's hands lingered, her fingers drew idle patterns on Chloe's skin and the redhead felt these down to her core.

"Wasn't there a party?"

"Yeah, but I was bored - and I couldn't stop thinking about you, locked up in the library on a festive night like this," the brunette whispered. She pulled Chloe's hair from her neck with one hand, exposing her delicious neck.

"Are you drunk?" Chloe asked, trying to find the reason for Beca behaving so strangely.

"Drunk on your scent. God, I missed your scent," Beca breathed. She nibbled on Chloe's jaw, using her lips and tongue and teeth to tease a moan out of Chloe. "I can smell you blood running through your veins, C. It makes me dizzy."

"Beca?"

"It'll only hurt a second, love," Beca promised in a fake British accent as she licked along Chloe's neck.

"What're you…?" But her question was cut short as a pair of sharp teeth sank into her flesh and a cry of pain was ripped from the redhead's mouth.

"You'l be mine - for all eternity," the vampire promised.

Chloe's head jerked up from her books. She looked around herself but she was alone - well, at least there were no vampiric Becas anywhere near, just other students leaning over their books. Two at the nearest table were looking at her quizzically.

Had she actually screamed dreaming of Beca biting her? Had she moaned? Chloe didn't know and she felt too shy to ask. She simply smiled at the two apologetically before she started putting her things in her bag. As she left the library she was muttering under her breath:

"No more watching Buffy or getting worked up over Beca Mitchell…"


	10. Love Is Not Love

I.

Beca looked up at Jesse as he was looking at her in his intent puppy kind of way. She felt inclined to reach out her hand and ruffle his hair just a little. that was the way she felt toward him, in a completely friendly, you're like my brother kind of way.

She knew now that kissing him was the worst thing she could have done, that in correlation with that love song… well, she'd never been in love before. How could she have known what it felt like? How could she have known that you could confuse the feelings you had for one person with the feelings you had for another? But obviously that had happened - now it was obvious, before it had been a jumble of: why does that girl drive me nuts? Why does that guy even want me? Those kind of things…

"So what did you wanna talk about?" Jesse asked and looked at her with rapt attention.

"I wanted to talk… about us, about…" She stopped when he started grinning at her and his dimples showed. He was way too cute to hurt. Maybe she could be with him. She thought he was cute, maybe… but there was this feeling in the pit of her stomach again, the one she had had when she had first kissed him. It told her he was wrong for her, she could never be with him. Beca sighed and smiled a little sadly at him.

"Whoa, whoa, what's that sad face for?" Jesse asked. "Talking about us, that's good, Beca."

She looked at him earnestly but as she didn't go on, he grew worried, his puppy look disappeared, there was a worrying line between his brows.

"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, you didn't. I did," she told him.

"I don't think…", but she held up her hand and he stopped talking.

Beca was looking at her hand for a moment, she blew out her breath as if that would help her to say what she had come to his room to tell him. She looked at him again.

"I shouldn't have kissed you, Jesse. I shouldn't have sung that song to you. I… I thought… You know, this is why I hate movies, they make you believe that things are going to happen like they do in movies. Like I would go to college, I would meet a nice guy who likes me, and we would… have our cheesy moment or whatever and then we would kiss and… it would be over. The movie, not our lives because… our lives go on and… it wasn't like in the movies, Jesse. I didn't feel… like they feel in the movies. I thought I would. I just felt awkward and wrong… and then…" But she didn't tell him what had happened after she had kissed him, that she had looked back to where the Bellas had been standing and had looked right into those shining blue eyes… shining with tears?

"You didn't feel… what?"

"You know, like…. fireworks going off, big smooshy love feelings in the pit of your stomach…" She saw his face fall at this point and it silenced her. She hated this. She didn't want to hurt him but what else was she supposed to do? Pretend?

That's what she had done that evening when they had partied. She had pretended that she was happy and not completely stumped by what other things she had felt after kissing Jesse - the guilt, the heartache, the wrenching in her gut whenever she had looked at Chloe. That yearning.

"You didn't feel… anything?" He asked.

"I felt that I like you, Jesse, but… not… in a romantic or…," she blushed. "… sexual way."

"But I thought… you sang that song and… I don't know… why did you do that if you weren't into me?" Jesse looked very intently at her. She knew that he was trying to understand intellectually what his feelings would maybe never accept.

"I didn't know. As I said, I thought the way we met, the way you flirted with me, I thought that was how it was supposed to happen. That I was supposed to feel… something. I was trying - I guess too hard," she tried to explain.

"You mean all this while… all these months, you didn't feel anything for me?"

"I told you I like you, I really do. There was… that moment when you tried to kiss me and I pulled away. I knew then that… but I thought, maybe it was because it was too early, I wasn't ready. I… wasn't ready to admit that I didn't like you that way."

"You're doing it again,aren't you?" He asked.

"Doing what?"

"Pushing me away? That's what you do, right?"

"This is not about that, Jesse," she told him but he wasn't listening. He shook his head impatiently.

"You like me but you're scared. I get that, Becs…."

"Don't call me that!" It just shot out of her. She didn't want him to call her that because there was only one person who called her that and she hadn't… since she had kissed Jesse, and she missed hearing it.

"What? Beca, what is even going on? Why are you doing this?"

"I don't have a choice, Jesse. I…"

"You what? Just…" He reached out his hand and touched hers, trying to grasp it but she pulled it away. "Beca, please, I get that you're scared. You don't trust men easily, I get that. Your dad was never there for you and…"

"If you say abandonment issues, I'm gonna strangle you, Jesse. I'm not a psychology textbook case. I have my problems with my dad - problems that we're trying to work out. That has nothing to do with you… or the fact that I'm not in love with you."

"Okay," but it sounded like 'if you say so' and that made her angry.

"Jesse, really, I… like you but… I want us to be friends," she said and now she reached out and lay her hand on his knee.

"Friends? Because that's easier, right? Easier than opening up?"

"I have opened up to… a lot of people since I've come here, Jesse. To you, to my dad, to the Bellas… to Chloe. I know I'm still keeping a lot of things inside but we all do, Jesse. We all have secrets."

"Well, I don't, not from you. I think I was pretty open with how I felt for you from the beginning. God, I fell for you the moment I saw you standing in the street with your headphones, in the red top with the long vest-like thing over it. I'll never forget how you looked at me - like I was nuts - the way you looked at everything with this superior air, like it didn't concern you. You were…" But he didn't really had a word for it. It had just been Beca, the way one got to know her. The girl who hated everything. But when you got to know her better there was an incredible, giving person underneath and he loved that person.

"I know this is hard, Jesse. It's hard for me, too, but… this is not going to work, believe me," she told him rubbing his knee a little then noticing what she was doing and how he could interpret it. She took her hand away awkwardly.

"But why not? Give me one reason why we shouldn't work when we already are working, Beca. We are working." He smiled at her and tried to carress her cheek. But Beca shook her head and he let his hand fall. Once again, she looked sadly at him.

"There's someone else," she said.

"Someone… else?" She nodded. "Who? I mean… I've never seen you with… LUKE!" Beca couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at this assumption.

"No, not Luke," she gave back impatiently.

"Who then?"

This was the moment she had feared she would have to face too soon. She didn't feel ready. She hadn't analyzed all her feelings so far, she hadn't had time to look at it all rationally. At the moment she only knew how it had felt seeing Chloe's eyes swim in tears after she had kissed Jesse, how she had felt looking at her but not being able to talk to her since. She hadn't even had time to analyze all that had been going on before… those subtle hints, touches she had thought were innocent at the time but hadn't felt innocent… not to her.

"There's no one, you just want the shortest way out, don't you? Well, I'm not letting you, Beca. I'll fight fo…"

"Chloe," Beca burst out.

"What?"

"It's Chloe. I'm…." and she closed her eyes before saying it: "I'm in love with Chloe."

Minutes seemed to pass. Beca held her eyes closed but opened them when Jesse didn't say anything. He looked pretty comically at her, if you were inclined to laugh which Beca was not. But then he started shaking his head again.

"That doesn't make any sense, Beca," he told her and he sounded like some sort of teacher, like someone who had to explain the world to her. He had this voice when he was talking about movies to her, like she couldn't understand the hidden meaning underneath looks and touches and words that were exchanged. But she understood, she understood perfectly how these things were used, how she was manipulated into interpreting them. All he saw were those moments they had shared, him flirting, her resisting - for a time - him being there for her, her pushing him away, falling apart and then coming together strong. But he had missed half the movie - he had missed her being ambushed in the shower, a redhead that was pulling her incredibly close, that pushed into her personal space and refused to go away again.

Chloe was the reason she was still with the Bellas, she was the reason, Beca had come to love singing again - not just mixing other people's music together - she had that smile that would always make her feel better. Even only seeing Chloe always made her happy. But Jesse didn't know that - he had missed that part of the movie, of her life.

"It makes sense to me, Jesse," she told him and then got off his bed.

"Wait, Beca. I mean, let's talk about this, rationally," he pleaded.

"There's nothing rational about love. I could defend myself, saying that I didn't know I liked women. But it doesn't matter that Chloe is a woman - she's the person who makes me smile. She's the person I wanna tell my life to - and wanna hear all about in return. She's really just amazing and I gotta tell her now."

"Beca…" He wanted to stop her but she just put her hand against his chest, her other hand already pulling open the door.

"I really want us to be friends, Jesse, but… right now I gotta go," she told him. "I'll see you. Bye," and she left him. He left his room after her but stopped in the hallway infront of his door, looking after her. He didn't know where he had gone wrong, he didn't know what else to do or say to make her stay - and he didn't understand that it really wasn't up to him at all.

II.

The door to Chloe's room stood open and Beca turned to look back at Aubrey who had let her into the apartment. But the blonde must have already disappeared into her own room, she wasn't there anymore. Beca took a deep breath, wondering if she should just leave again. Maybe coming here had been a mistake, it was too soon, too spontaneous.

She grinned a little sef-deprecatingly, she knew she was being a coward. She had already told Jesse, told him that she couldn't be with him, told him… that she LOVED Chloe. Had she been insane? She felt a little insane just now. Because the butterflies in her stomach weren't just for nerves, they were for anticipation, wonder, happiness. She was in love.

Which, of course, didn't mean that Chloe was, or that she was with her. But there had been signs, there had been moments of… connection.

Once again, Beca took a deep breath and then walked to the open doorway, looking into Chloe's room, looking at the redhead on her bed, a scrapbook in her lap, her fingers touching something inside.

Beca knocked at the open door and her friend looked up, her eyes once again shining with tears. But she smiled as she saw Beca standing there and the Bellas captain took it as an invitation to enter.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd visit," Beca answered and slipped out of her jacket, putting it at the food of Chloe's bed before sitting down next to it, hands in her lap. Chloe looked at her curiously and the brunette tried a smile. It wasn't convincing, though, she felt it herself. She was too nervous, she had feelings, even sitting as far away from Chloe as her bed allowed her skin practically vibrated with the redhead's proximity and Beca's want to touch her.

"That's nice," Chloe said. For once, she didn't bubble with excitement or ideas. She sat very still and simply looked at Beca who noticed that Chloe had closed the scrapbook that still lay in her lap. It said 'Bellas' on the front.

"A Bellas scrapbook?" she asked and Chloe looked back at it. She smiled. "That's so…"

"Nerdy?" They both laughed.

"Yeah, nerdy," Beca agreed. "May I have a look?" she asked but Chloe hesitated.

"Not just now," she answered, looking earnestly at Beca. "Why are you really here?" she then asked and her look was sad, an unspoken accusation mingled with the residue of tears from earlier.

"I… wanted to see you. I… need to talk to you," Beca answered. Chloe nodded slowly. "I miss you," the Bellas captain added and it seem to startle the redhead.

"I wasn't gone," she said but they both knew that Chloe had pulled away after the finals, all the Bellas knew and it seemed that all the Bellas had understood.

"You weren't here, either," Beca said.

"Don't," Chloe warned. "I'm not gonna talk to you about this, Becs…"

That one word made Beca smile, just for a second and they had both heard it and understood.

"I love it when you call me Becs," Beca said quietly and Chloe looked up at her, once again surprised. She didn't know what was going on, she couldn't believe it was what she hoped for and yet Beca was insistent on saying things… she wouldn't just have come to torture Chloe. She wouldn't be so cruel. Or was it possible that she didn't know how Chloe felt?

The younger woman got up from the bed and came closer, sitting down again so close her leg was touching Chloe's knee.

"I love it when you call me Becs, Chlo," she repeated and reached for Chloe's hand that lay on the book in her lap. The redhead closed her eyes, fresh tears fell from it.

"Why are you doing this?" Chloe's voice sounded raspy, choked with tears and pain.

"Because I have to. I have to tell you…"

"Don't," Chloe pleaded. "I don't wanna hear it."

"I love you."

A silence so deep, Beca felt like she was under water. She had said it for the first time. It was shocking, it was breathtaking, frightening. But Beca held the hand of her love, and it was warm, cramping around her own fingers as if in pain. And the same showed on Chloe's beautiful face. Dread filled Beca's heart. She shouldn't have said it, Chloe had known and she didn't feel the same. And now Beca felt the waves of cold water engulf her, shake her. She let go of Chloe's hand and stood. She had to leave.

"Becs," Chloe said and Beca's head whipped around, tears of her own flying from her wide eyes. Chloe jumped up from the bed, her scrapbook hitting the floor with a thump, but not minding, she reached for Beca. The brunette struggled but Chloe's arms pulled her to her, like they had done so often.

"What?" Beca asked through the fog that seemed to surround her. "What?" Because she was sure, Chloe had said something.

"I love you," Chloe said breathlessly into her ear. "I love you so much," she repeated and then soft lips touched her cheek. Their warmth travelled through Beca, reached her chest and made her heart pump so violently she thought it would jump right out of it.

And then she felt Chloe's lips on hers and all breath left her. Her head started spinning and her arms hung on tightly to the one solid thing she could reach: Chloe. She was the anchor that grounded her as her whole being seemed to drown in the sensation of lips touching lips.

Breathless they came up for air, surprisingly still standing upright next to Chloe's bed.

"I thought you liked Jesse," Chloe said, pulling away but only so much as to be able to look at Beca, taking her face between her hands.

"I thought so too but I didn't feel it," Beca confessed. A smile spread over her lips, just looking at Chloe. "You're so lovely," she said and laughed at the cheesy-ness of it, and her feelings. This was what happened in movies - even if it was not how it happened in movies.

"You really love me?" Chloe asked, a smidge of doubt still visible in those enticing baby blues. Beca nodded.

"Yes, so much. And I'm sorry I didn't realize it earlier…," but Chloe put a finger to her lips, silencing the smaller woman.

"It's okay if you know now," she told her and smiled. Beca laughed seeing it, she had missed it. Her eyes fell on the book on the floor, it had opened naturally to a photo of Beca and Chloe together, laughing, hugging.

"Why don't I know this picture?" Beca asked as she kneeled to pick up the scrapbook.

"Bree took it, the night of the riff-off," Chloe explained. She sat down on the bed and Beca sat next to her.

"I like it," the brunette said. She looked up at Chloe and saw the same expression of unsheltered feelings there that the redhead was wearing in the photograph. "How could I not have known?"

"You weren't expecting it, that's how. Sometimes it just takes us a while to know we're in love," Chloe said wisely and Beca nodded.

"I'm in love with you," Beca confirmed and the redhead nodded. She leaned forward and captured Beca's lips again in a second of a million kisses.


	11. A House Is Not a Home But You Are

Beca was leaning comfortably in the doorway, looking at the patterns the light drew onto the wooden floor. It was quite beautiful and she would be able to watch this for many years to come. She felt lucky and a lazy grin spread her lips upwards. It became a toothy smile when she felt two arms encircle her waiste, fingers linking over her flat tummy.

"You like?" Aubrey whispered into her ear and she nodded. "Good, because I want this house and I want you in it." She giggled and kissed Beca's ear.

"And whatever Aubrey wants, Aubrey gets," Beca deduced, still smiling.

The blonde turned the smaller woman in her arms so that she was standing with her back against the doorway, facing her tall lover.

"You know it wasn't always like that, Beca. I had to fight for…."

"I know, Bree, but that's all over. And I do want you to get everything you want from now on. Including this house." Beca pulled Aubrey close, saw the glassy shine of almost-tears in the gray-blue depths of her eyes. But Aubrey didn't cry, she rarely did, she rarely allowed herself to.

"I love you," she now said, smiling a quiet and contented smile before she kissed Beca.

It should have been just a kiss but as they so often found themselves their passion overwhelmed them within seconds, engaging lips and tongues and hands in a full-body groping-fest. It lasted several minutes and left them both breathless.

"God, you drive me insane," Aubrey breathed.

"You can keep calling me Beca, you know?" They laughed together, still entangled in their lovers embrace.

"We'll be very happy here," Aubrey promised.

"We already are," Beca gave back and captured the blonde's lips in another kiss before she took her hand to look at the rest of the house - their new home.


	12. I Loved You Once

"You know what, fuck you, Jesse!"

And with that all the noise in the BTMs living room simply vanished, like it had been sucked out and left a vacuum. Everybody was looking at the usually sweet redhead whom few people had ever heard curse. But right now the hightened color of anger accompanied her words and everybody knew better than to approach her - or her adversary Jesse who looked very uncomfortably around himself.

"I…," he stammered but flushed when he looked around himself and into faces that looked back at him intrusively, questioningly. "It's not like it's my fault, Chloe," he finally found words of explanation but they were weak and he knew it.

"Not your fault? No, of course not, nothing's ever your fault…," Chloe gave back in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's always Beca's fault. If you're going through a hard time and she's not there for you, it's her fault. If she's having a hard time and doesn't want you with her, it's her fault. Your break-up last year was her fault… everything's always her fault. And now you want to blame me for this, because as always, it's not your fault."

"That's hardly fair, Chloe. You only know her side of the story…"

"Yes, I know her part of the story and it still sounds like it's her fault. Does that tell you anything about her? She blames herself because you do. That's how it's always been. Well, newsflash, Jesse: you've been in this relationship together since the beginning and if things aren't great it's hardly ever the fault of only one of the people involved," she told him and he stared at her angrily. This public display of anger made him very uncomfortable, more so because he knew she had a point and now everybody was hearing it. And they were his friends as well as hers. But he wouldn't have her blame him for everything, he couldn't.

"I've made mistakes, okay? Yeah, we both have. You don't know all of it."

"I know enough, Jesse. I know that you're jealous and that Beca's trying… has been trying to keep her friendships with other guys very shallow just so you won't give her a hard time, okay? And it shouldn't even be her problem, it's yours. It's your issue, not hers!" Chloe told Jesse what she had been holding in for almost the whole time they had known each other, something that had set her against him the moment Beca had mentioned it - not that she needed anything else to set her against him other than Beca liking him. So yeah, she had been jealous, too, but she had never made it Beca's problem.

"If she's flirting with other guys.."

"She's never flirted with anyone!" Chloe interrupted Jesse sharply. "All she does is talk to other people, Luke, Benji, they're her friends."

"Luke wanted her, he once told me himself," Jesse defended himself.

"But she never wanted him," Chloe reasoned. "All you had to do was trust her… but you couldn't do that."

"Well, obviously I was right. I was just looking at the wrong people, the wrong gender," he gave back angrily. Chloe smiled cynically at him.

"And because she slipped once while drunk… because she… was angry and depressed and… hurt by your constant accusations and kissed me you think your jealousy was justified. You're an idiot. Beca didn't kiss me because of me…" but she didn't finish the sentence, it hurt her too much to do it. That Beca had kissed her to hurt Jesse… it made her sick. But she didn't blame Beca, she couldn't. Beca had reacted to months of pressure from her overly jealous boyfriend. She had snapped, Chloe had just been the one she had felt safe enough to do that with.

"Oh, then she kissed you because she loves me so much?" Jesse asked and now his sarcasm was showing.

"No, she kissed me because she… knew I wouldn't hate her for it. Or for going back to you when you both had cleared your heads again and your drama was over. That's what always happens Jesse, isn't it? You guys have some kind of drama and then you make up. You never really solve your problems, they blow up into everyone's faces and then you go back to how you were. We've all seen it happen, Jesse.. too often." Chloe looked around herself and saw some of the people in the room nod. There weren't many of them left now, most had left when the yelling began, tired of the drama that repeated itself every so often.

"Not this time, I'm through. She's gone too far," Jesse pouted yet there was rarely anybody who believed it, certainly not Chloe.

"I wish that were true, you know. I wish…" but she wouldn't tell him how much she wished for Beca to see that Jesse wasn't for her and vice versa, that she could be so much happier with Chloe.

"Well, I guess we've all seen what you wish from my girlfriend, Chloe," Jesse said bitterly. Chloe rolled her beautiful blue eyes at him.

"That's hardly news, Jesse," she said. "But Beca's not into me. If she were… well, there have been plenty of times she could have made a move. She never did - until tonight. And that wasn't even about me." There was heartache in this admission and everybody could hear it.

"Why are you saying that?" came the quiet voice from the doorway of someone who had just returned into the house after having run away earlier because she couldn't stand the accusations and the yelling and her own feelings.

Chloe turned, Jesse looked up, they both stared at Beca who had tears in her eyes.

"It wasn't about me, Beca, you know that," Chloe said sadly but Beca shook her head.

"Do you think I would hurt you like that, Chlo? Do you think I would use you like that?" She asked. "Then you don't know me at all."

They looked at each other, both hurt, both confused but for different reasons. And then Jesse remembered that he was a part of this.

"What are you saying, Beca? That you… you wanted to kiss her?"

"Of course I did," Beca said, she sounded tired. Her eyes found Jesse and looked at him for a long moment. "We're so over, Jess, and we both know it. Let's not go through all of it again, I'm so tired of it."

"Tired? Tired of me, you mean," he accused her. He was obviously not ready to give up so easily and Beca closed her eyes. She could only shake her head at this mess but she mostly shook it at herself, that she hadn't been able to recognize her feelings earlier, to give them room and credit and realize that Jesse was indeed not for her. That Chloe was.

"Jesse, I'm saying this… to you as my friend which you have once been," she said slowly and very deliberately. The alcohol she had consumed ealier tonight made it difficult but she wanted to be very clear about it, no more misunderstanding, no more running around in circles. "I'm not in love with you anymore. I haven't been for a while. You have smothered me, you have criticized me, and I have let you because I thought you were right. You weren't mostly. But I still let you do it because I thought you loved me and that was even more important to me than thinking I loved you. I don't anymore, and I don't think you love me. You don't even like me much or you would let me be myself which you could never do while we were together. We're only hurting each other and it has to stop."

"What's gotten into you, Beca? That's bullshit! Of course I love you!" Jesse yelled at her and she flinched. From the corner of her eyes she saw some of her friends moving closer to her, Chloe took a few steps back from Jesse and reached out her hand behind her back for Beca to take. And she took it, sliding her hand into Chloe's, holding on tight.

"Even if you still loved me," she said. "I don't love you. It's over." Again there was the all-encompassing silence and again it came from the disbelief of having heard something that was rare. Maybe all of their friends had just believed that Jesse and Beca would always be this couple who fought a lot and then make up, the couple that had all the drama all the time, whether they were happy or unhappy with each other. But if they had paid attention then they would have known that neither Beca or Jesse were those kind of people - drama wasn't their thing. Still, they had brought it out in each other. Chloe had known because she knew Beca and they had talked about it often - until Beca finally understood.

She now looked at Chloe who had turned, looked into her eyes. There were more truths to be discovered in those eyes, she knew. And some of that scared her, sure, but most of it made her curious. She wanted to explore these new feelings that the redhead had awakened within her with just one kiss.

Jesse saw the intense look exchanged by Chloe and Beca. It made him angry and he didn't understand it but Beca had told him that she didn't want to be with him anymore and he had to heed her wishes - at least until they could talk about it all rationally. Because whenever they talked rationally about things she was wont to see it his way in the end. They would be together, he was sure of it. They had had their happy ending, and that meant something. More than a drunken kiss with a friend.

Jesse left the room, stomping by his girlfriend who paid him no heed. She was still looking into the most beautiful eyes, at the most beautiful face, at the most amazing person. They smiled at each other.

"Walk me home?" she asked and Chloe nodded.

They left hand in hand, the way they usually walked together - would walk together for a long time to come.


	13. There's This Girl That I Like

"Hey, sweety," Aubrey said as she came into the room to sit next to Chloe on the redhead's bed. But her friend only had a sad smile for her today which was already out of character for her but the sigh she heaved made this even more obvious. Aubrey looked a little worried at her best friend.

"Hey, what's up?" Chloe shook her red mane.

"Nothing… much." She closed the book she had been holding open on her lap but not reading and looked up at Aubrey like a brave little trooper. Her friend only got the distinct impression that she was trying too hard.

"Look, I know it hasn't been easy, you know? Us taking over the Bellas, your nodes… but we will get to the finals and…." Aubrey stopped when the bright blue eyes of her friend left her and instead turned unseeingly toward the window. "But that's not what you're upset about, is it?"

Chloe shook her head but said nothing. She didn't seem willing to share her problem with the blonde and that was certainly a first. Chloe was nothing if not open and if something bothered her she had so far always counted on Aubrey to listen and give advice. The Bellas captain couldn't think of a reason why it should be different this time.

"How long have we known each other now?" She asked Chloe, steering her way around Chloe's silence.

"Almost three years," the redhead answered and a small smile showed her friend that Chloe was well aware of what Aubrey was doing.

"And in those almost three years, has there ever been anything that you couldn't talk to me about?" Aubrey asked earnestly. Chloe shook her head. "What is it, Chloe?"

"You won't like it, Bree," Chloe warned her friend but this made Aubrey only more curious besides a little worried.

"You can't know that if you don't tell me," she coaxed and smiled reassuringly at her friend, though now she felt nothing close to reassured.

"It's Beca," Chloe said and looked at her friend, waiting for a reaction. And it cost Aubrey quite a lot of discipline not to show any. But if Aubrey Posen had learned anything in life, it was discipline and she kept her expression neutral.

"What about Beca?" she asked after a while since Chloe didn't continue.

"She's… I….I may… have a toner for her," she finally confessed and now Aubrey couldn't help but react:

"Aca-scuse me?"

"Do you want me to draw you a picture?" Chloe asked, her voice betraying her disappointment in Aubrey's reaction.

"No, I… I think I… well…. wow, I… I mean, it's okay that you like… a woman. I mean… but for serious, Chloe, did it have to be that woman? She's…"

"She's talented, and sweet, with a lovely voice and, good lord, her body, Bree…. she's hot," Chloe interrupted her friend with more information than Aubrey really felt she needed.

"And you're quite sure about the toner?" the tall blonde asked sarcastically.

"Bree, please… I… it's really bad enough that I have a thing for what I can only presume is a straight girl, I really don't need your sarcasm right now," Chloe told her friend plainly.

"I'm sorry, sweety. I just… well, I didn't see that coming. Are you sure, though? That's she's straight?" Aubrey put her chin on Chloe's shoulder, trying to give her best friend some kind of comfort.

"I guess, you can never be sure until you ask but… well, you said she had a toner for Jesse, so…"

"It's not like I've never been wrong about these things," Aubrey admitted.

"Do you think you are?" Chloe asked hopefully but her friend just shrugged without answering which told the redhead that Aubrey didn't think so. "I'm such an idiot," Chloe pouted.

"Nonsense. Listen to me, Beale, you're a hot woman. I say this as a straight woman who can admit to being just a little envious of your perfect curves. You're also smart and funny and a lovely person. And if that perfect package can't turn a girl, and I mean any girl, than none can. So, if you want her - and I really don't know why you would but there's no arguing about taste, I guess - then get her." And she smiled.

Chloe smiled, too, just a little.

"You're my best friend," the redhead said and pulled Aubrey into a tight hug.

"And don't you forget it," the blonde confirmed and they smiled at each other. "Why don't you text Beca about some of those songs she's always mixing… you could go over to her place and listen to some music… or whatever else you can think of," Aubrey grinned saucily at her friend.

"Are you trying to get me out of the apartment?" Chloe asked and saw her friend blush just a little.

"Would I do that?"

"So, I take it, that dude from your business class is coming over for some tutoring?" They grinned at each other.

"Maybe," Aubrey admitted. "But that's not why I want you to leave, not primarily. If you got a thing for Beca, you should spend time with her, get to know her. I have a feeling she's the knd of girl who needs a lot of attention… or likes to be wooed, or whatever. I thnk you should try that?"

"You, my friend, show unsuspected insight. And I think you might be right."

"So, you're gonna text her?"

"I'm gonna do one better, I'm gonna call her," Chloe said.

"You really do like her voice, don't you?" The redhead just grinned in answer and picked up her phone. Aubrey left Chloe to it, closing the door on the redhead's voice:

"Hey, Becs, are you busy right now?"


	14. That Curious Feeling

Chloe was leaning over her laptop, tapping away at it on an essay she had to hand in on Monday. Books and printed pages were scattered around her together with some handwritten notes. She was in full study-mode and paid little mind to the younger woman who sat at the same table, across form her and watching her.

Beca had thought she could spend a little time with Chloe while she studied if she pretended to study also. She wasn't. She had surfed the net a little, downloaded some songs and had at certain intervals looked over at her friend who was so engrossed in her work she seemed to have forgotten about Beca.

It made Beca feel a little petulant, being ignored in this fashion. Because it seemed that all she ever noticed when Chloe was near was Chloe. Her smile, the way she moved, her voice, her everything. And it confused Beca. Maybe it shouldn't, maybe it was just normal to meet someone who captured your attention that way, a friend. Maybe it was normal because there really wasn't anything that wasn't possible, romantically, sexually. After all, this was 2012, no need to get overly worried about something that should be open for discussion and experimentation…

But Beca wasn't confused because Chloe was a woman, she was confused because she never felt such a strong pull towards anybody - male or female. Nobody had ever held her attention like this. It was plain weird.

"Chloe?"

"Hm?" Chloe looked up for a short moment and smiled, then she seemed to think of something and pulled a book close, reading something. This whole endeavor really turned out quite dissatisfying for Beca. She had wanted to talk to Chloe about all this… confusion. But Chloe was busy. She was probably the only student at Barden who when she said, she was going to study, was actually going to study.

"Chloe?" Beca tried again and again Chloe looked up, this time questioningly, paying attention and seeing Beca.

"Are you already finished with your things?" the redhead asked.

"Yeah, I… well, I didn't have anything to do really," Beca confessed.

"Oh, I thought…," but then she grinned. "You didn't wanna study?" She asked and Beca shook her head.

"You should have said so, I wouldn't even have started this until Monday morning if you hadn't said you wanted to study," she smiled. "Now I'm almost finished."

Beca laughed but checked herself quickly as a young man cleared his throat at the next table, looking at Beca annoyed. The freshman rolled her eyes and Chloe hid her grin behind a hand.

"You wanna finish it now?" Beca pointed at Chloe's laptop.

"Nah, I only need the conclusion. I'm fine," she said and Beca nodded. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm… I was wondering about something, actually… erm, you study gender and sexuality, right?"

"Ah, yeah, that and psychology, as you know." Beca nodded. She did know.

"Is there… a special reason why you're like studying… sexuality? I mean… I hear a lot of…. lesbians study that," Beca finally gound out and this made Chloe laugh and now the guy at the next table looked at her in a slightly menacing way.

"Sorry," the redhead whispered in his direction and started pullng her books into a neat pile, she packed her laptop and her papers away and signed for Beca to accompany her. They left the library a short whle later but Chloe only walked to the next bench infront of the library to sit down again. Beca sat next to her, curiious as to Chloe's answer to her question.

"So, you wanna know if I'm a lesbian?" Chloe asked with a bright smile.

"I was… I was just wondering, you know…."

"Whether Cynthia Rose was the only one in our esteemed little group? She's not… well, I can't talk for anyone else but, yes, I like girls… I also happen to like guys… but I don't know, I seem to hook up with girls easier and more often. At least, that's how it's been for me these three years at college. Does that answer your question?" Chloe was still smiling, completely at ease about her sexuality which was so typically Chloe. Beca nodded in answer to her friend's question. She didn't look relieved or happy about it, just thoughtful. "Why were you asking?" Chloe asked since she didn't get any kind of information from Beca as to why she even wanted to know.

"Oh, just… people are talking. I was just curious…," but they could both tell that this wasn't the truth and Beca couldn't even make it sound like it. She pulled a face.

"Come one, Becs, talk to me," Chloe asked of her friend and lay a hand on the brunette's knee. It was so natural for her to seek physical contact, Beca was sure she wasn't even aware of it. Not like Beca, she was very aware of the warmth she could feel through her pants where Chloe touched her.

"I… I'm thinking about… things… I…," she sighed because she felt unable to convey what she was thinking about or why she was thinking about certain things now. "It sometimes seems so…. impossible, you know, to even imagine… the feelings… but curious, too. The touch… of another woman…" She shut her mouth, aware that she was stammering like an idiot.

"Have you ever been with a woman, Beca?" It only took a second for the younger woman to shake her head no.

"No, I haven't."

"But it's what you're thinking about?" Chloe asked tenderly and Beca looked up at her.

"I don't know what's happening lately," she confessed and blushed because she felt the heat of Chloe's touch a little stronger now that she was also looking into her eyes. She felt so… enchanted by the redhead, unable to look away, unable to resist this exciting and utterly frightening pull toward her.

"What is happening right now, Beca?" Chloe asked.

Beca swallowed at the sudden dryness of her throat, the wild beating of her pulse there. She felt clammy and frightened, willing to run but paralyzed.

"I… I wanna know," she stammered.

"You wanna know how it feels?" Beca nodded. Chloe's face was close now, ready to kiss or be kissed, and Beca wanted to and feared it. The redhead smiled at her, pulling back a little. "Then you will have to make an effort to find out," she told Beca who stared at her confusedly.

"Pick me up at 7 tonight. You're gonna take me on a date. And by a date, I mean you're buying," the redhead grinned and stood up. She was about to leave but she thought better of it. "Don't be scared, it's just… sexuality. We'll sort it out together," and then she leaned down, cupping Beca's cheek. She kissed the brunette lightly on the lips before she straightened again and walked away.

"Seven sharp," she threw over her shoulder and Beca could only blink in confusion. But then she had to grin. Yeah, that was just like Chloe and that was why she liked her so much. Beca picked herself up off the bench and walked slowly back to Baker Hall, already wondering what she was gonna wear, where they would go - on their first date.


	15. I Ship You With Me

"And this is the library," Chloe told Beca pointing at the building they were standing infront.

"You're so droll, Beale. You know I've been in there, a couple of times."

"Which means exactly twice?" Chloe teased and they laughed together. "You know I'm really proud of you with a major and all. You're gonna turn into an actual student one of these days." She laid an arm around Beca's shoulders and pulled her close.

"Awww, now, don't get all mushy on me, you goof," the smaller woman protested but didn't make an effort to disentangle herself from her friend. In fact, she pushed her arms around Chloe's waiste and held on.

"Now, who's mushy?" Chloe whispered into her ear but Beca merely smiled. She felt good. She never would have thought it a year ago but college had really changed her life - for the better. The Bellas had changed it. She now had friends and she had decided to make an effort at studying - which was mainly Chloe's fault because she had signed up for the master's program and would stay with the Bellas and according to her the Bellas had to uphold some ridiculous academic standard or something.

"You give great hugs, I'm just enjoying the priviledge," Beca informed Chloe who laughed. But then she seemed to remember something and sobered.

"Is that all?"

"What else should it be?" Beca asked although she had a vague idea what Chloe was referring to.

"You just broke up with Jesse two weeks…"

"I'm not lonely, Chlo, I'm just in a good mood. Or I was…," Beca said and let go of the redhead. She sat down on the lowest step of the library steps, stretching her legs out infront of her, her elbows leaning on the higher step behind her. She looked up at Chloe, shadowing her eyes from the sun with her hand.

Chloe smiled at the sophomore, it seemed apologetic.

"That wasn't what I was getting at," she said and sat down beside Beca, but on the second step, next to Beca's elbow. She stroked the other woman's hair, then kissed her on the head.

"You guys seem to… I don't know, tread easy whenever I'm around. Nobody dares mention the Trebles or anything that could remind me of Jesse. I'm over him, you know. Truly and surely. He broke up with me, he did what he thought was right and… I guess I agree with him now," she looked up at Chloe again. "I really do."

Chloe nodded but didn't say anything. They both sat there for a while, Chloe greeted a couple of students who entered the library, then she said:

"The Bellas don't really know how to… deal with Jesse now. Or the other Trebles. It's awkward."

"Yeah, it is. What about you? Have you seen him since the break up?"

"You would have been able to tell if I had met him. He would have walked funny from the ass-kicking I still owe him," Chloe said. It sounded funny coming from the sweet-tempered redhead but it didn't sound like Chloe was joking. Beca looked at her.

"Why do you owe him an ass-kicking?"

"Because of reasons," Chloe stubbornly replied.

"Hey," Beca sat up and took both Chloe's hands in hers. "Not on my account, okay? He didn't hurt me deliberately, or anything. He did what he thought was right," she explained or tried to because the message didn't seem to get through to her friend.

"He still hurt you, and I'm gonna hurt him," Choe said.

"No, please, Chloe. That's not necessary. Really… I… I haven't been hurt that badly, to be honest."

"You haven't? But you were in love with him," the redhead stated. Beca looked a little guiltily then she turned her head, looking at the cloudless sky.

"I thought I was… at first. I just… I didn't know any better, I guess. But it wasn't the great, big love story I thought it was, it was more like, whatever," she confessed what she hadn't told anyone so far.

"Whatever? But… you're not just saying this to prevent me from kickiing some Treble-butt, right?" Beca shook her head.

"I… was actually relieved when he broke it off. And now everybody thinks that I'm suffering like a dog and I don't," the brunette said sheepishly. Chloe smiled.

"I'm glad you don't," she said. Beca smiled up at her, leaning back again.

"I feel like an ass having everybody believe that Jesse broke my heart."

"They'll get over it. Though, I think Amy's gonna have a hard time, she thought you two were the cutest thing. She shipped you guys hard," Chloe told her friend.

"She did what?"

"She shipped you. That's when you like a couple and think they should be together forever, against all odds, even if there's no chance, even if they're not even together," Chloe grinned but it looked a little sad.

"Now, that's curious," Beca said. "How do you even know about that shipping-business?"

Chloe shrugged non-commitally.

Beca laughed and poked Chloe into her side. The redhead squeaked, then hit at Beca's fingers.

"Stop that," she demanded.

"Who do you ship? Come on, out with it! Is it Stacie and Uni? Benji and Aubrey, maybe? Now that would be fatal for the poor boy. Come on, tell me!" The brunette laughed but Chloe was frightfully serious when she said:

"Maybe I ship you with someone… someone other than Jesse. Maybe." This sobered Beca and she looked at Chloe curiously, thinking about the options.

"Who?" she finally asked since she couldn't thnk of anyone she'd been especially friendly with. Not like with Jesse, and not even like with Chloe herself.

The redhead looked at Beca.

"Me," she said and then got up from her perch on the library steps. She looked back at her friend for a moment but Beca seemed frozen in her surprise. That was enough to convince the redhead that Beca had not seen this coming, and that it couldn't be welcome news. She had hoped it might be, that Beca had suspected something. Obviously, she had not.

Chloe started walking away from her friend, tears starting to leak from her eyes. Then she heard running footsteps behind her and from the corner of her eyes, through the curtain of tears, she saw Beca catching up with her. The brunette walked a short while next to her, then she slipped her fingers between Chloe's.


	16. Forget I Said That

"Why're you smiling?" Beca asked Chloe, leaning into her on the couch they shared at this party. They weren't exactly wallflowers but both of them had danced half the night away - and now they enjoyed each other's company.

"I'm smiling because this is the first time I've seen you drunk."

"And that's funny?" Chloe laughed.

"No, it's not funny. It's rather… endearing?" Beca made a face at the word.

"Endearing?" she asked. "I think I'll take funny over endearing any day… endearing," she huffed under her breath and it made Chloe laugh a little more.

"You think you're so tough, Mitchell, being a bad-ass DJ… but I've seen through your act, you're really just a big mushball," she said and now leaned into Beca, rubbing her nose against the smaller woman's jaw.

If she had been sober, Beca would probably have found this thing a little weird and maybe it would have weirded her out enough to excuse herself and get up and leave, but her slightly less than sober state kept her sitting and giggle at Chloe's antics.

"It seems I'm not the only one who's drunk," she said.

"I'm just a little inhibriated, that's all."

"Isn't that PC for copletely hammered," Beca asked, still chuckling.

"No," Chloe protested indignantly "and I'm not hammered. I'm… happy," she informed Beca and grinned at her new friend.

"Well, I'm happy that you're happy," Beca gave back and they both leaned back into the couch a little more, Chloe putting her head down on Beca's shoulder.

"Hey," she pointed into the crowd after a while, "isn't that Jesse?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, don't point, it's rude. And don't look at him or he's coming over," Beca warned.

"I thought you liked Jesse," Chloe looked up at Beca quizzically.

"I do, I like him just fine but I don't have to spend every waking minute with him. And we just had lunch together today. So, please, just… look at me," Beca pleaded and Chloe lifted her head from the freshman's shoulder to look her in the eyes. In all honesty, she didn't need another focal point to keep her from looking at Jesse, he wasn't really that interesting to her, but if Beca insisted she look at her… well, there were certainly worse things she could feast her eyes on. Worse, certainly, than Beca's eyes.

"You've got beautiful eyes," Chloe heard herself say.

Beca smirked.

"Really?"

"Yeah, dark blue like a stormy ocean, really beautiful."

"Says the girl with the most stunning eyes possible," Beca gave back and, a second later, blushed furiously at her words. "Forget I said that," she added hastily.

Chloe shook her head.

"Nuh-uh, a girl doesn't get many compliments as nice as that one," she said and smiled. Beca would have liked to look away, hide her thoughts, hide the overwhelming sense of drowning in Chloe's eyes with it but she couldn't. She simply couldn't look away from this beautiful woman. And she wanted to get closer, wanted to…

"Hey, Beca," came a voice from not too far away, the sneakers infront of them seemed to be connected to the voice. Beca looked up at a smiling Jesse. It wasn't his 'I'm too charming to resist smile,' there lingered some insecurity at the outskirts of that smile but still, he smiled.

"Hey, Jesse," Beca said. Chloe merely nodded at the Treble.

"You want another drink?" He asked helpfully, having noticed that hers was empty.

"Nah, I think I had quite enough for tonight," Beca answered and struggled to stand up off the couch. Chloe followed her with her eyes but didn't say anything. "I think I call it a night."

"I can walk you home," Jesse offered a little too willingly.

"No, please… stay," Beca told him. She turned to Chloe for a second. "I'll see you at practice," she said.

"Yeah, see you then," Chloe answered, letting Beca go for the moment. There was no hurry, they would have time to get to know each other better - and Chloe hoped that getting to know Beca better would take a long time.


	17. Love Hurts

Love Hurts

by Kane

Chloe stepped out of her apartment door and locked it. As she turned to walk to the elevator, she suddenly stopped. There was someone sitting next to her door on the floor and it was a very familiar someone.

"Beca?" she said and the brunette looked up. She wasn't smiling, she actually looked sad.

"Chloe." It sounded raspy and Chloe couldn't decide wether it was from lack of sleep or because her friend had cried very recently. Both options seemed possible as Beca had dark circles around her red-rimmed eyes. "I wanted to see you," the brunette added after a short while.

"Why didn't you knock?" Chloe asked and received a shrug for an answer.

Beca seemed completely out of sorts, sad, desolate even.

"Give me a second," Chloe told her and pulled her phone from her purse. She turned away from Beca as she called someone.

Beca was only vaguely aware that Chloe cancelled a meeting for her, she was deep inside her head, deep inside some thoughts that had driven her to Chloe's doorstep but no further. Because how could she tell? How could she verbalize?

She felt Chloe's hand on her knee and the redhead smiled at her. She had cut her long locks shortly after graduation, for the new job. She looked sophisticated and able in her smart pantsuit. She was so way out of Beca's league and the DJ knew it… but knowing and having to act accordingly were two different things. Not that Beca was acting at all - if she had, Chloe would have known how she felt a long time ago. and maybe things would have fallen apart then, or maybe they would have been good for awhile until Chloe realized that she was far too good for Beca… or maybe they would still be good and Beca would never have to have felt as miserable as she did now. she wouldn't have to have broken Jesse's heart.

"You wanna come in now?" Chloe asked as she rubbed the younger woman's arm, always the toucher, always the comforter.

"i shouldn't keep you," Beca chickened.

"Yeah, right. Come in, we need to talk." It was a command and Beca obeyed by getting up off the floor and following Chloe inside. "Sit down, I'll get you something to drink. When have you eaten last?"

It was so typical of Chloe to just take over and care of her. And Beca surmised that it wasn't that surprising considering how she must look to her friend. She knew she had lost weight, that she hadn't gotten enough sleep these last few weeks, that she had cried - a lot.

"Can we just talk?" Beca asked, embarrassed by the other woman's need to care for her.

"Sure," Chloe answered but still got two sodas from the fridge, handing Beca one as they sat down on the couch. Beca put the can on the coffee table, and Chloe did the same as she took Beca's hands in her own.

And once again, Beca's determination faltered. How could she tell? How could she verbalize?

"I missed you," she started and Chloe gave a small smile.

"I missed you, too. I'm sorry that I haven't called in awhile, the job… some other people." Beca nodded.

"Someone special?" she heard herself asking without even wanting to pry into Chloe's private life.

"A couple of guys have asked me out but… I can't say that I'm interested. I mean they're nice but…" She looked into Beca's eyes. was there a hidden meaning in the abrupt ending of her sentence? Was there something Chloe had wanted to convey in the blue depths of her eyes that she had always been unable to decipher? Beca hoped so.

"Is everything okay with you and Jesse?" Chloe then asked.

"There is no Jesse and I anymore," Beca informed her friend and now it was her who wanted to convey a message. She wasn't sure if it reached Chloe but the redhead didn't tell her that she was sorry, she didn't even muster the pretense to look sad.

"Are you all right?" She asked instead and Beca shook her head.

"I haven't been all right since you left, Chlo," she told her. They looked at each other for a long moment. "I'm in love with you and…," Beca took a deep breath, more of a gasp at the sudden breathlessness she felt. "… and I feel… broken, Chloe. I… can't…" Chloe's hands on her cheeks interrupted her stutterings. They were soft, carressing skin that had yearned too long to be touched by her.

"You're in love with me?" the taller woman asked. Beca only nodded. Chloe kept carressing her cheeks, and then she felt the redhead's sweet breath on her skin, her face going strangely out of focus as she was so close… close enough to kiss. And she could feel her lips on her own, felt her heart beat violently in her chest, her head swim in thoughts that were incomprehensible now and not important at all.

It was a sweet kiss, and too short. Chloe pulled away from Beca and looked at her for a long time. Beca felt dazed, happy but not at all assured.

"Do you love me?" she asked Chloe and the redhead laughed lightly.

"Sweety, I have loved you the moment I saw you. I've just been waiting for you to make up your mind."


	18. Into the Dark

It had grown dark but Beca hadn't turned on the light. She just sat, sat and stared into the darkness. She was holding her phone but had stopped looking at it every five minutes. Phones never rang or vibrated or did anything useful if you wanted them to. There were no messages to be read and answered, no sweet voice that told you to hurry because Aubrey would have your ass if you came late for practice again.

Chloe hadn't called all day, she had not texted, she had not broken into Beca's life the way she used to. And it had only been her first day at work. What if she never called now, or only on the weekends? What if she forgot… her life and friends at Barden?

The pain Beca felt at this simple question was paralysing. She closed her eyes and lay her forehead to her arms that were folded over her knees. She didn't mean to cry, she tried hard not to, but it hurt. She had known that she would miss the lively redhead but what she felt now was more than that. It felt like an emptiness in her chest, there was nothing inside her ribcage, only the hollow echo of a name, her name.

And that didn't even make any sense.

How could she yearn - and it was yearning - to hear her voice, look at her, laugh with her? How could she miss her touch, her closeness that had seemed too close at times… but never quite close enough? Maybe.

There was a knocking at the door and Beca lifted her head from her arms. Could it be her? Rational thought told her that it couldn't be. But hope made her heart beat faster - that heart that wasn't even there because of the hollowness… but it beat and it beat wildly. More knocking and Beca still stared at the door. Should she go open it? But what if it wasn't her? What if…

"Beca? Are you there? Beca, it's me, Jesse," it came from the other side of the door and Beca closed her eyes again. She had recognized the voice, of course. And it wasn't really a surprise because just as Chloe hadn't called or texted her, she herself had neglected her boyfriend.

Charmic justice, Beca thought. Because Jesse had texted her and she had ignored him, she hadn't even read his texts, they still showed on her phone.

The knocking had stopped, maybe Jesse listened at the door, maybe he looked up and down the hall if she was coming home. Then she heard retreating footsteps. Jesse left and it relieved her of the burden to talk to him. He wouldn't want to talk about Chloe, and she didn't want to talk about anything but her. She wanted to tell someone, how it felt, how it hurt. But not Jesse - she would never tell Jesse.

"I'm such an ass," she said into the darkness and although she whispered, it seemed too loud to her ears. "God, what am I even doing?" She wondered aloud and moved to get up from her bed to open the door, to see if she could catch Jesse before he left. But that was the moment, her phone rang. The tingling that ran through her body had nothing to do with its vibration either, it was excitement and feverish anticipation. It was also Chloe.

Beca smiled and tapped the illuminated display.

"Yes?" she said into it.

"Hey, Becs. I'm so sorry it's so late. Have you been sleeping already? Should I call back tomorrow? I fell asleep when I came home, just conked out… God, what a day!" Beca giggled to hear Chloe's excitement and so did the redhead. "Is it too late to talk?" She asked again.

"No, it's never too late to talk, Chlo. Tell me about your first day," the younger woman said smiling happily. And it was true, it was never too late for Chloe and her to talk.


	19. The Student Body

"Becs?" Chloe tapped the other woman's foot with her own and the brunette looked up.

"Hm?"

"Whatchu reading?" the redhead asked and smiled from her place at the other end of Beca's bed where they had sat down to study. Chloe felt that after two hours of being studious she deserved a break - and so did Beca.

"Oh… erm…," Beca closed the book over her finger and looked at the cover of the book she was holding. "A Century of Struggle - The Women's Rights Movement in the United States," she then read from it. Chloe looked back at her suspiciously before she moved from her sitting position into a lying one just next to Beca. She pulled her friend's book down so as to look inside - and discovered sheet music.

"Oh, really. Looks like…," she read the title. "'Who wants to live forever' to me." She raised a copper eyebrow at her friend and Beca had the decency to look sheepishly.

"Well," she started but couldn't think of an excuse. And why should she make up excuses? Everybody knew that studying wasn't what she wanted to do, it was… an inconvenience that she had to pretend that she was interested in any of this at all.

"Well?" Chloe smiled and Beca just shrugged a shoulder. They laughed a little together knowing both very well that there was nothing else to say on the subject.

"You want to take a break?" Beca asked after a short while and Chloe nodded. She was leaning comfortably on her elbows by Beca's side, the brunette crouched down a little further into her pillows now that her legs had more space.

"You wanna get something to eat or…"

"Yeah, maybe a little later," Chloe said and they just lounged for awhile.

Beca had noticed earlier that Chloe wasn't very talkative today. She had thought that Chloe was already in study-mode and didn't want to break her concentration but now it seemed as if Chloe had something on her mind, something that might concern her if Beca's instincts didn't betray her.

"You okay there?" she asked.

Chloe didn't answer immediately, she seemed to think about the question and how to respond.

"I was wondering… about something," she finally said. Beca didn't press her friend to continue, she knew that she would when she was ready. It didn't take the redhead long to continue:

"Aubrey thinks that you're into Jesse, you know that, right?"

Beca sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I know." She rolled her eyes answering.

"So, you're not?" Chloe asked - as it seemed to Beca - hopefully.

"I… I honestly don't know. I mean… he's nice, sorta funny… I don't know, I kind of feel that I should be into him, you know? He's a good guy," she said and thought it sounded lame. And maybe it was lame but she wasn't sure what Chloe was fishing for and she wasn't sure herself whether she wanted Chloe to know all about what might or might not be going on between her and Jesse.

This was really strange, though. Chloe was her best friend at Barden, she found herself uncharacteristically drawn to her, liked spending time with her even if it involved a certain amount of studying (not on her part, on Chloe's). Still, talking to the redhead about Jesse seemed weird - just as it would seem weird talking to Jesse about Chloe.

"He seems nice," the redhead volunteered but if Beca had sounded lame, she herself sounded downright unenthusiastic.

"He is… why're you asking?" Chloe shrugged her shoulders in answer, undecided whether she should apply her usual brutal honesty or not. She liked Beca too much to outright lie to her but the fact was that maybe she just plain liked her too much, at least for the brunette to handle. And that kind of honesty could cost them their friendship.

"I thought… I mean… I don't know if you…" Chloe tried after awhile but not very successfully. Beca looked at her questioningly and she knew she had to explain, she wanted to explain. She wanted Beca to know how she felt. "If you're not going out with him… would you… like consider… going out with… somebody else?"

Chloe closed her eyes. She felt like the worst kind of fool for not just being able to ask Beca out. But it was so hard!

"I… I'm not sure… who… are you… Chloe, are you asking me out?" Beca caught on and now Chloe put her head into her hands for a moment. She breathed deeply before she lifted her head to her friend, her blue eyes searching Beca's pleadingly before she nodded.

"I am," she said.

Beca looked at Chloe, surprised but not freaked, surprised but not very surprised, and it gave the older woman a little hope.

"I… I've never been out with another girl… woman before," Beca said. "I mean, not on a date like… a date."

"It's not a lot different from going out with a guy," Chloe offered. "You know, dinner, movie, some conversation. All pretty… normal."

Beca nodded thoughtfully. She looked at the book she was still holding, letting her fingers draw the title.

"It's okay, Beca, you don't have to. I mean, it's okay. We're friends and if that's all you want us to be then… we'll be friends. I just… I thought… because I like you but if you don't feel…"

"But I do," Beca blurted out and they both sat looking at each other a little shocked. "I… I like you, too. I just… I never have liked a girl before," she confessed quietly.

Chloe nodded slowly.

"It's not… well, it is different from liking a guy but not… a lot different… maybe in a way like it's different with every person," the redhead offered and Beca nodded as if understanding what Chloe tried to tell her. But she didn't. She didn't understand where her feelings for Chloe had come from, what they meant. She just knew she liked her - more than she'd ever liked anyone before. And maybe that was enough for now.

"Chloe?"

"Hm?"

"Would you…" Beca reached out carefully and touched Chloe cheek. Then she took her hand back, touching her own lips softly. Chloe smiled in understanding, lifting herself up from her lying position to lean over her friend. She put her lips softly to Beca's, applying only the slightest of pressure. It was such a chaste little kiss but it drew from Beca a shaky breath that spoke of her excitement, her nervousness. And her heart beat wildly in her chest when Chloe lowered her lips to hers once again.


	20. Jesse's Girl

They were just friends, Jesse had to remind himself. Only Beca never put it quite that way. She would say: 'we're friends, Jesse,' rolling her eyes at him for resenting the fact that she would never use a 'just' where Chloe was concerned.

It wasn't his fault that he was jealous of the lively redhead. Ever since he'd seen her kiss some girl at some party, he had known and it nagged on him. Because Beca spent so much time with her best friend, would sleep over at her place on any given occasion which was much more often than she would at his place. Given, he didn't have his own place, like Chloe did, he was still sharing a dormroom with Benji but… it seemed that his girlfriend spent much more time with Chloe than with him, and that was wrong. Roommate or not, she should jump at every chance she could spent with him. Only, she didn't.

Like right now, she was singing a duet with Chloe, a love song at that. Chloe only had to bat her long lashes and no matter what mood Beca had been in before, she would just shake her head at herself, smile, and do what Chloe had asked of her. Sure, she did it self-deprecatingly, aware that the redhead had her wrapped around her little finger, but there was also that smile that said: I would do anything for her. And that was wrong, too, because she never smiled that way when he asked something of her. And yes, she did indulge him on some things he wanted to do and she didn't, like watching movies, but shouldn't she do that just as willingly as singing a duet with her best friend in this beat-up karaoke place?

And what kind of person had to be talked into watching movies anyways? It wasn't like she didn't know anything about movies, hadn't watched her share, she even liked the occasional movie, yet it always seemed that she resented the mere effort, like she was losing time in which she could have done something worthwhile… while he could think of few things that were more worthwhile than watching movies.

Sometimes it occured to Jesse that he and Beca were not exactly made for each other. Despite his feelings for her, despite the fact that they got along so great, there were times he felt that they lived on different planets. But how could that possibly be? They were both aca-people, loved music, were good singers - heck, they sounded impossibly great together… when Beca let herself be talked into singing with him and singing something that they both could agree on… but, damn it, they were living similar lives with similar passions. Why shouldn't they be great together? How could they be anything but great together?

And he didn't like to admit this - even to himself - but many times they weren't. Sometimes it just felt like their timings were off. When he wanted to just spent time cuddling, kissing, getting to know her more intimately, she wanted to go do something else, or she would have an idea for a new mix. When she wanted to spent time, he usually had some assignment due that couldn't wait. And then there was movie-night and Beca constantly trying to dodge it. They had agreed to do this but Beca still argued, still tried to get him to do other things and if it didn't work - sometimes he would let her get away with it - she would fidget through it, talk over it or simply fall asleep ten minutes in… this was incomprehensible to him. The only film he had ever managed to fall asleep to was 'Anaconda' and that was just a plain bad movie, never mind the casting which was quite good.

Jesse took a long drink of his beer as Beca and Chloe sang the last lines of their duet, looking into each others' eyes, milking the moment for every molecule of tension that surrounded them and the audience. And it worked so well for them. People stared at them engrossed in their romance - or the appearance of their romance - and Jesse felt himself grow weak with believing that there was more, that what they conveyed on stage in this moment as real. He should know better, he knew, he should take this as it was - just friendship - but it fucking broke his heart. Jesse got up from his chair and slipped his jacket off it in a swift motion as he stumbled - feeling like a wounded animal, like a man beaten - from the bar and toward the nearest bus stop. And for once, he didn't want Beca to follow him like she had done all the times before, he didn't want her to assure him anymore that there was nothing going on between her and Chloe. For once, he would just like her to stay with her friend and make fucking sure that there really wasn't.


	21. Dude! What's the rush?

**A/N: for pdt-b - because of reasons :) And thanks for contributing the title, too.**

* * *

They had texted on and off all day, Beca because she had nothing better to do and Jesse because he couldn't get enough of conversing with his new girlfriend. That's at least how he saw Beca in the scheme of his life, the Bella herself was a little less quick with such labels, she liked to take things slower. That was why she had refused to meet him all day, making herself scarce, and why she was now sitting in her dormroom (the aca-gods had smiled on her when she had scored a single for her second year at Barden) trying to study.

Only, studying was boring and she was rather unaccustomed to it and that was why she did as little of it as possible. But since no new ideas for mixes presented itself tonight and all the Bellas had other engagements she thought she might yet tell Jesse to come over so they could hang out - which would probably once again end in her dodging his attempts at being too intimate… it wasn't like she minded it that much, it was nice, like kissing and all that business but everything else? In truth, she felt overwhelmed by him, by his enthusiasm, by his cheerfulness - and his pouting if things weren't going his way. This was college, she didn't feel like making life-changing choices as to her significant other, she just wanted to have a good time, spend most of it with friends and good music (or even some bad music)… but Jesse wanted more. And she wasn't ready for a commitment at not even 20.

Still, having him come over would beat texting him all night and not doing anything besides. They could listen to music, or talk, whatever… and she just wanted to text and ask him to come over when there was a knock on the door. Beca half expected Jesse, it wouldn't be the first time he came over spontaneously, but when she called out to the person on the other side of the door to enter, a ginger poked her head in.

"Chloe!" Beca called out, happier than even she would have anticipated she would be at the sight of her best friend who had graduated from Barden and now lived in Memphis where she worked for a small music label.

"Hey, there, short stuff," the redhead said, smiling in that way she had - that Chloe-way, bright and happy. God, Beca had missed that.

"Who do you call short, here, Beale? It's not the outer package that shows greatness, it's a person's character," Beca lectured her friend and then hugged her for all she was worth. It was a tight one, they hadn't seen each other for three months and had missed each other and texted or talked almost every day. But it wasn't the same as those bone-crunching, I-just-need-to-feel-you-closely-hugs. Those were special - and had grown oh so rare.

"That's what guys usually say, isn't it?" Chloe answered Beca's words and grinned. The smaller woman just rolled her eyes. She led Chloe over to her bed and they very unceremoniously fell onto it, lounging next to each other - just like it used to be.

"What're you doing here, though. I didn't expect you to come visit for another month at least. Did you miss me?" Beca asked playfully and Chloe chuckled.

"Every inch of your great personality, believe me. Well, my folks were very generous for my birthday and so… I could afford a ticket… and I'm staying at CR and Jess's."

"You could have stayed here. I have been planning to buy some kind of impromptu second bed anyway," Beca said, pouting just a little.

"And where would you put that, into your closet? 'Cause, my friend, this here space you left to walk through your mess doesn't cut it," Chloe laughed while Beca now pouted in earnest. It was true, though, what little space was not occupied with Beca's bed and desk, had been taken over by books, cds, notebooks, and the odd dirty clothing.

"I would have cleaned up befo… oh," she was interrupted by her phone vibrating and now remembered that she never answered Jesse's last text. "Sorry," she said getting up and fetching her phone from her desk.

"Is it a Bella?" Chloe asked but Beca shook her head.

"Jesse," she answered automatically as she reaad his text:

_Did u fall asleep over your history book? would like to c u - what say u we catch dinner and a movie. they're showing _pirates of the c. _at the arcade._

"Do you have plans with him? Sorry, I should have called…" and Chloe was about to get up off Beca's bed again.

"Sit down, you goof. I don't have plans with Jesse… just been texting when you came, is all." Beca told her friend who sat back down on Beca's bed. Beca joined her while she was texting Jesse:

_Sorry, this history-thing got interesting for a second there. Also sorry cos today is a no-go, 2 much 2 read for monday. will probably spend most of the weekend locked up here or at library._

Beca felt bad lying to Jesse this way but she also knew he wouldn't understand her wanting to spend the whole weekend with Chloe and the Bellas, or he would want to come along and that wasn't how Beca pictured the short time she had with Chloe.

"It's okay if you've got plans with your boyfriend, Beca," Chloe now said.

"And I told you I don't. And Jesse's not technically my boyfriend."

"Have you told him that?" Chloe asked. She raised a copper eyebrow at her friend, knowing all too well how Jesse felt for her friend. And how could he not? Beca was amazing - she was also bad at commitment, another thing Chloe knew.

"We're cool," Beca said but it didn't sound convincing. She rolled her eyes and Chloe giggled.

"I take it you don't wanna talk about it?"

Beca shook her head.

"Let's talk about you… and your new job. Have you talked your boss into signing the Bellas, yet?" They laughed together but were once again interrupted by Beca's phone. The small brunette sighed.

_How about I just pop up with tacos at some point 2morrow - just 2 make sure you don't work yoself to the bone?_

Beca felt herself get annoyed at this text, she had told him how it was gonna be, why couldn't he leave well enough alone? But she knew why, she knew that he only wanted to cheer her up, be there for her, be with her. But she didn't want that just now - she wanted to spend time with Chloe.

_Sorry, bro, but I really need to work this weekend. You know my dad, big scary literature professor? He'll have my hide if i'm not starting to get some grades - good or bad. Sorry. I'll make it up to you, promise._

Beca put her phone down, determined to not pick it up again tonight. She found Chloe look at her curiously when she turned back to her.

"Is everything all right with you guys?" She asked and Beca smiled.

"I told you we're cool. Now, tell me everything about Memphis," the Bellas captain teased. She did indeed ignore the next text that came and just concentrated on Chloe. They fell into that old banter that was part of their friendship. They laughed, they teased - before they knew it it was after midnight and morning came too soon after.

Beca didn't think about Jesse most of the weekend, she enjoyed her time with her best friend and the other Bellas as they had time.

Jesse didn't think of much besides Beca for most of the weekend and had to swallow his anger when he saw his girlfriend and some of her friends at the arcade on Sunday afternoon - leaving the movie theater after a showing of _Bring It On_.


	22. Conversations With the Ex

1.

"Hey, Chloe, wait up!" The redhead heard a semi-familiar voice and turned toward the young man who came toward her through a throng of people which had just exited the same building as her. It was her new workplace and as it was a considerable drive from her former university she was really surprised to see Jesse here.

"Jesse, what are you doing here?" She asked when he finally stood infront of her.

"I wanted to talk to you. Can we grab a coffee somewhere or are you busy?"

"No, I'm okay. There's a Starbucks down there." And so they started walking in that direction, Chloe stealing nervous glances at her companion while he seemed deep in thought. A couple minutes later when they had their coffee creations standing infront of them and had sat down at a table outside, Chloe asked:

"So, what did you wanna talk to me about?" She was nervous but good at hiding it and he didn't pay enough attention to notice.

"Beca, what else," he answered and she nodded. And really, it was the obvious answer since even though they had known each other for close to two years now they never had talked much with each other and never about anything but Beca - or something aca.

"Right," she said then took a sip of her latte. "How is she?"

"Am I wrong to assume that you know that better than me? You do know that she's broken up with me, right?" Chloe nodded slowly, thoughtful.

"Yeah, I've heard," she said, her hand fiddling with her cup. She watched him stare into the crowd of the city, through people walking by. It felt awkward to her having him here, not knowing what he wanted. "So…," she urged him to talk to her.

"Yeah, I was wondering… Beca, she tells you everything. I mean, you're her best friend, she did tell you about… our break-up, right?" Chloe nodded, though in truth she had heard about the actual break-up from Amy before Beca had called her that same night. But Beca had forewarned her, told her that her relationship with Jesse had not been what she had envisioned it would be.

"Do you know why?" he asked. "Do you know why she broke up with me?"

"Jesse, I can't talk to you about stuff Beca told me in confidence. She's my… friend, I'm not gonna betray her confidence," Chloe told Jesse and now he nodded. But he also got that faraway-look again. "Didn't she tell you… why she didn't wanna be with you anymore?"

"She said something… about me being too good for her and stuff like that… how can I be too good for her if I want her? Shouldn't it be my decision?"

"It's never just the decision of one person, Jesse," Chloe said wisely.

"Well, shouldn't I have a say in the break-up then? Because I don't want it, I don't want to be without her. I love her," he said and his desperation was obvious. And she felt for him, she really did to a certain degree.

"That's not what she wants, though." He shook his head.

"No, she wants to be with someone else. And I can't find out who it is," he told her and his face took on an angry edge. "You know who it is, don't you?"

"Jesse, really I can't…"

"Please, Chloe. Ever since Beca told me she's seeing someone else I've tried to find out. I thought it had to be someone aca but… it's not one of the Trebles, I'm sure, and the Harmonics, well, they're gay and the High Notes… high… she's not going out with any of the aca-guys from Barden. And I heard of no other hook-ups with anyone nearby, so… it's not Luke, either. I thought it might be but he's got a boyfriend… that was a shock to find out…," he rambled now.

"Why was that a shock?" Chloe asked slightly indignified.

"Just… I didn't see that coming. I mean he's… but then most gay men are, right?"

"Luke's not gay, he's bi," Chloe informed Jesse and he looked at her surprised.

"I didn't even know you knew him," he said.

"Well, I do. We actually had a short fling the year we both started at Barden." That was news and Jesse blinked at Chloe. He hadn't heard of that piece of juicy gossip before. "It's ancient news. I just don't think you should be running around telling people about Luke's sexuality. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't appreciated it," Chloe said.

"Sorry, I… you're right, I shouldn't. I'm just… I'm at the end of my rope here, Chloe. I… can't hardly sleep, or eat, or… sing for that matter. Beca just… I have to get her back and I can't if I don't know who that guy is she's supposedly going out with."

"It's not supposedly, Jesse, she is seeing someone," Chloe informed him.

"And you know who it is, right?" His questioning had a feverish kind of quality to it and Chloe found it unsettling. Jesse seemed slightly off in his obsession with who Beca was dating. And she would not tell him.

"I can't tell you, Jesse, it's Beca's business… and the business of the person she is seeing."

"But that's just the thing, Chloe. She's not seeing anyone besides acas. She's going to practice and to the competitions… the rest of the day, she's just mixing music on her computer," he said and it was certainly true, Beca still wasn't what one would call a social butterfly.

"She's going to classes," Chloe said.

"Hardly ever," Jesse corrected. "And it's none of those guys… I would have heard about it." Which probably meant that he made it his business to hear about it. Obsession was quite the right word for Jesse's behavior. Chloe had hardly believed it when Beca had told her that the guy she had been with for almost a year had slowly turned into a stalker but his behavior now… the mere fact that he had driven up all the way from Barden… Chloe looked around them uncomfortably and was glad that they were in a crowded place.

"You have to stop doing this, Jesse. Stop following her around, that's not healthy."

"I just have to know, Chloe. That guy she is seeing can't love her as much as I do," he said and she flinched slightly.

"It's her choice, Jesse."

"I want her back," he insisted.

"Listen to me, Jesse. You must give her her space. She's not gonna come back to you if you badger her this way. You know Beca, she's private, she's shy… she needs her space. And she needs to make her own decision about who she wants to be with. And at the moment that's not you," Chloe told him in as reasonable a voice as possible. It was hard for her to stay this calm, hard to not just tell him and be done with it.

"I know that, Chloe. I'm not completely gone and I don't want to come across like… some crazy stalker. I'm not." He sighed. "I can't just let her go. We had something so good, Chloe. You know that, right?"

"I know she liked you a lot, Jesse," was all Chloe could bring herself to say.

"It just drives me nuts to not know. Most of the time I think there can't be anyone, you know. Because she never meets people… unless she met him here," he now concluded and Chloe sat back in her chair, breathing deeply. He took his cue from her reaction. "She has, hasn't she? Did you introduce them?"

"Jesse!" she warned him.

"Come on, it's not like you said anything if I guessed it. Is he a friend of yours? Or a family member? It isn't one of your brothers, right? I remember she said that good looks ran in your family."

"It's not one of my brothers," Chloe said.

"Who then, not your dad, surely?"

"Oh, come on, Jesse, be real!" Chloe scoffed at the mere idea. "And it's not a cousin or uncle, or anything like that, okay?"

Jesse looked at her for a long moment, looked at the slight flush she was sporting, at the way her eyes didn't look into his but shifted away. He was about to guess, she knew.

"It's me, okay? I'm the one Beca is seeing," she said, her jaw tightening around this truth and the reaction she was expecting. But Jesse just sat there, looking at her like he hadn't even heard what she'd said. Then his eyes looked back at the crowd, not seeing it either. He started to shake his head.

"No," he said. "That's not true." He pushed his chair back and got up.

"Jesse," Chloe made a last attempt.

"No," he said again. "Beca's not a lesbian. I should know." And he let his coffee sit where it had already cooled and just left.

2.

Chloe had called her after Jesse had left her. Her first words had been 'He knows,' and it didn't take Beca a second to guess who 'he' was and what he 'knew.' They had talked for some time now about telling people, especially Jesse because he was taking the break-up so hard and wouldn't back off. But Beca had stalled, she didn't want for everybody to know her business and telling Jesse would ensure that everybody did. And it didn't seem fair that he should know before the Bellas either.

But all this was now a mute discussion because Chloe had told him. Beca wasn't angry about this - Chloe didn't even have to explain because Beca trusted her enough to know that she wouldn't have told him if it had avoidable - but she was queasy. She was also half expecting Jesse to jump out on her, shake her and demand that she told him that she wasn't a lesbian.

But when he finally approached her - two days after he'd been talking to Chloe - he simply came up to her on the quad where she was listening to music. She'd seen him coming and had already taken her headphones off when he sat down next to her.

"Do you have a minute?" he asked. He seemed calm but Beca knew that his temper could rise fast and she braced herself.

"We can talk. I heard you talked to Chloe?" He simply looked at her for a while and Beca felt like he was seizing her up... they were obviously still in that phase where he expected her to lie to him, deflect his questions. And she couldn't blame him, she had done these things. But she was ready to have an honest conversation about this now.

"I talked to her. She told me you two were dating."

"Yes, we are. We... I know that must have surprised you," she said, deciding that she was not going to tell him anything about her relationship with Chloe. That was her private business and - as Chloe had pointed out to her when they had last skyped - she didn't have any reason to apologize for who she was dating either.

"It did surprise me.. until I realized it was a lie," he said and now she was the one who was surprised.

"It's not a lie, Jesse. I love Chloe, she's my girlfriend." But Jesse shook his head.

"No, that's bullshit. I know you, Beca, and you're not a lesbian. You wouldn't have done what we did if you were," he reasoned. He still seemed calm but it actually unsettled Beca more than if he were yelling at her.

"Straight and gay are not the only two options, you know? And I don't know if I'm a lesbian but I do love Chloe. We're together."

"Stop lying to me, Becs. Just tell me who you're dating," he insisted and from the veins bulding on his neck and forehead she could see that he was getting really angry now. But he had yet to raise his voice.

"I'm dating Chloe and if you don't believe me, I can't change that but it's still true," she told him plainly, looking into his eyes to convey the truthfulness of her words. Jesse lookd at her, then shook his head again.

"No, you're not with a woman. Chloe is your friend, you're close but... no. If you were into each other I would have known." Beca closed her eyes and knew from the way her skin was heating that she was blushing. Jesse must have seen it because she felt his intense glare on her. She opened her eyes and looked into his dark eyes that were really stormy now that he realized what had happened with their relationship.

"I haven't cheated on you, Jesse, okay? I... But I've had feelings for Chloe while we were still together. And I'm sorry but... you can't help who you're falling for and... my feelings for Chloe took me by surprise but... it's how I feel."

Jesse looked at her for a long moment, his eyes seemed to clear, of anger, of misunderstanding - it seemed that there was no feeling left behind them.

"I'm sorry," she repeated and reached out to touch his knee but he slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch me, you freak!" he yelled at her and several people looked over to them.

"Jesse," Beca tried but her ex sprang up.

"You're disgusting! And you're a liar! You loved me just like I loved you. I don't know what Chloe is doing to you, what you allow her to do to you but it's wrong, it's..."

"Yo, douchebag, why don't you pack up your bullfroggery and go bother someone else, 'cause you's not welcome here no more," he was interrupted by a heavy set Australian Bella. And beside Amy stood Cynthia Rose and Jessica and the were all looking at Jesse like they were ready to whip his ass into the next century.

Beca looked up in surprise that lingered on panic as she became aware of what they must have heard Jesse say. Jesse looked angrily at Amy and the others then he looked back at Beca who was still sitting on the lawn with her headphones and her laptop. She was still the girl he had fallen in love with... only he wasn't the boy she'd fallen in love with anymore.

"You're going to beg me to take you back, you know? Chloe can't give what I can give you. She's..."

"Chloe's amazing, actually. She's the sweetest thing you could hope to meet," CR interrupted Jesse and he looked up at her, not appreciating being interrupted again.

"And then she's hot," Amy agreed.

"And successful, too," Jessica piped up.

"And her parents are loaded, man," Amy supplied. They were all looking at Jesse challengingly, daring him to diss Chloe or Beca some more. But Jesse knew when he couldn't win an argument, he was also far too angry to put any words into a coherent sentence. So, he merely glared at the girls for a moment longer and then turned and walked off, fuming.

Beca looked up at her friends who seemed to relax now that Jesse had left although she couldn't have told that they were stressed before. They had held up a good cover.

"You should really report that kid to someone, B. Spreading hate like that," Amy said shaking her head as she settled down next to her captain.

"You okay, little one?" Cynthia Rose said and rubbed Beca's arm to comfort her. Jessica merely smiled at the small brunette whose eyes began to water. But she smiled at her friend.

"I'm okay now. Thanks guys."


	23. For the Win

Beca sat on the steps infront of Lincoln Center and looked up at the sky. She couldn't see any stars, after all this was New York City, but she had no doubt they were there and on this night that was enough. She was smiling, waiting for her fellow Bellas to join her since they were still in the dressing room changing, and she was also enjoying the quite after all the ruckus inside.

They had won, it was like… a dream. They had actually won.

Beca heard footsteps coming toward her but she didn't turn. She had an idea of who it would be and it made her smile even more. And then that someone sat down beside her, threw her arms around her and nuzzled her cheek. Beca had to giggle.

"We were amazing," Chloe gushed into her ear, also giggling.

"That we were," Beca agreed.

"You were aca-awesome," Chloe then said and Beca laughed outright.

"So were you, so was everybody tonight," she said. Chloe nodded at her side, pressing her head close to her friend's.

"I'm so happy," she then whispered. And after a long moment in which they both felt exactly this sentiment, she added: "And so sad at the same time."

Beca looked at her friend surprised.

"Why sad?" she asked.

Chloe let go of Beca and leaned back onto the steps, looking up at the dark blue sky herself now. Beca could see tears forming in her eyes, reflecting the light from the buildings and street lamps around them. Then her friend looked back at her again, sighing sadly.

"Do you love Jesse?" she asked. The question took Beca by surprise once again, she looked at the redhead quizzically.

"I…" she started but wasn't quite sure what to answer. "I…. I'm not sure." She finally came out with the truth.

"Why not?"

"I… I've never been in love, Chlo. I don't know how that feels, really. I like Jesse a lot… and I guess since I sang that song for him, there is something more. I was hurt when he wasn't there. I wanted… this is all so confusing, Chloe." She said.

"What is?"

"I felt bad when he wasn't talking to me. I wanted things to be the way they were before but now… they're different now."

"Because you kissed," Chloe guessed and right. Beca nodded.

"I felt bad without him but I also felt bad without you… and the Bellas. And I'm not even sure what hurt me more: him not talking to me or not being able to talk to any of you… to you…" Beca whispered that last part. She had learned that friendships and relationships often followed the same rules and emotions. She knew that you could be jealous over a friend, that you could crave physical contact of your best friend… things got intense sometimes. And she knew that things had gotten intense with Chloe and Jesse… and she wasn't sure she could tell which one of them was her friend and which one she wanted as her… lover.

"Why're you sad, Chlo?" Beca asked and leaned back onto the steps next to Chloe, so as not to have to look at her, but still being able to see her.

"I shouldn't tell you now," the redhead said. "My timing sucks incredibly."

"Tell me anyways," Beca asked of her best friend.

"I love you," Chloe said.

Beca closed her eyes. This was it, this was the first time someone other than a family member had ever said it. And she felt how her heart swelt with the words, how her throat closed up, her eyes welled with tears. Love.

There were other voices now, coming from the Center behind them, the voices of their friends. And they both thought that Beca wouldn't answer anything, that they would just let Chloe's confession sit for awhile until they were both ready to deal with Beca's anwer. But as they both rose from their seats on the steps, Beca looked at Chloe, saw the glittering tears still in her eyes, saw her smile happily back at their friends as they whooped and sang as they came closer, Beca followed her instinct:

She pushed her arm around Chloe's waiste and drew her close. And she kissed her.

The world stopped in the moment their lips met - or maybe it was just their friends who stopped short in shock. Beca felt all air leave her body, felt the world coming to a screeching halt, felt Chloe crumble into her, felt the blood rush through her ears. All that happened, she would later swear and so much more. But the most important thing was her heart stopping. And she knew that this was right. All good, all right.

When they parted their friends still stared, none of them said a word, even Amy was out of witty comments for the moment.

"I think I love you too," Beca whispered into Chloe's hair.

And the world started spinning again with a jerk.


	24. Beca phone George

Beca had found a place to sit on the front steps of some house not far from the club where her fellow acas were still celebrating their victory. It wasn't like she didn't feel like celebrating - she had worked her ass off these last few weeks and felt that she deserved all the free shots she could get tonight. But, as was so often the case, this wasn't about the competition, this was about… a possibly wrong choice she had made along the way, one that was now biting her in her rear-end.

As she was sitting there alone, without the ruckus of a victory party, she tried to think about this personal issue of hers, the complexity of her feelings which had been hidden and were now revealed. But she found that the alcohol she had consumed earlier that night, made problem-solving impossible and so she reached for her phone in her jacket pocket and connected with the phone of the one person who she knew could and would help.

It took about 20 rings before the phone was answered and then it was a deep growl that greeted her.

"George?" she asked unsure whether it was him.

"B? What the… do you know how late it is?" Her best friend didn't sound happy to hear from her at all.

"It's very late," Beca answered with a sigh, not bothering with an apology - she was that drunk. Luckily for her, George could hear the misery she felt in that one answer and he pushed his sleepiness aside to help - as he'd always done and as she'd done a thousand times for him in return.

"What's up, sweety? I thought you'd be over the moon with having won that cmpetish and all."

"You heard? Don't tell me you watched it," she said surprised but grinning goofily because it made her feel good that he still cared so much, even though they hadn't seen each other since she'd started college.

"Sure thing, I have. The whole thing, online. Me, your mom, and Phil all sat infront of your mom's tiny laptop. And let me tell you, I've never seen anyone as proud as your mom was when you and that tall, gorgeous blonde lifted that big-ass trophy… she that Aubrey-chick, you keep complaining about?"

"Yeah, that's Aubrey. Did you… see Chloe, too?" Beca asked tentatively and could hear his best friend's smug smile over the line.

"Well, you was right about those eyes, they shone right out of the screen. Even your mom commented on them…"

"She did?" Beca asked unsure of whether George made this up or had maybe sad something to trigger the comment himself.

"Yeah, she said: that's Chloe with the eyes. Beca was right, they're gorgeous," George said, still very smug.

"I never said gorgeous, so I'm sure my mom didn't say gorgeous," Beca countered and heard her friend chuckle at the other end of the line.

"Still they are, sweetness."

Beca didn't answer. She didn't disagree but ever since she had told George about Chloe, she could detect an I'm-not-telling-you-you're-gay-but-you're-totally- gay-superiority in his voice. They had discussed this topic before, ever since George had confessed some drunken night that the first time they'd met in high school he'd though she was gay but she'd never confessed to ever having had a crush or anything more serious on a girl. And all that's been said before made her shy now.

"Becs, talk to me," he now asked of her and she sighed once more.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Well, I would like to hear why you've rung my phone at 2.30 in the morning. Surely, you didn't just want to tell me about your win, right?"

"No, I… oh, George, I think I made a really, really bad mistake… I…"

"Has it something to do with that cute lead-singer of the Trebles, what's his name again?"

"Jesse, his name is Jesse, and yeah… I kissed him tonight," and this confession was accompanied by another deep sigh.

"Ooh, now I'm a little envious. But you do realize that kissing is no reason for dark dispair, it's actually quite nice if you know how to do it right? Doesn't he?"

"Maybe I don't," she gave back in an attempt at being as flippant as he was. It fell short and they both fell silent for awhile. Then George asked:

"Or he's just not the one you should have been kissing?"

"Maybe," she answered quietly.

"B?"

"I don't wanna say it, George. Please, don't make me say that you were right all along, that I have a toner for Chloe, and that Jesse is just a convenient safer choice. I… I really can't deal with all of this right now," she told him.

"All right, then try this: I love you, sweetheart, you're my best friend. That will never change. And your mom loves you almost as much as I do…"

"George," Beca warned good-naturedly.

"Okay, she loves you just as much and unconditionally as I do, and so does my beloved Phil. We won't ever judge you or the people you want to be with - or the people you feel safe to be with. We just asked of you that you'll make yourself as happy as you can. Now that's not too much to ask, right?"

"Even if I make others unhappy in the process?"

"Sometimes there's just no other way. And I'm sure he'll know that you didn't do it on purpose if you explain it to him," George reasoned.

"How could I have been so stupid?"

"You remember when I kissed Leeann Jeffries in 9th grade? How she threw some choice candy bars and choicer words at me when I tried to explain? Sometimes these things happen - we can't always know how we feel until we feel it acutely, painfully, or in a my-heart-just-skipped-a-beat way… and sometimes we hurt people. I think as long as we don't do it deliberately, as long as we explain and apologize, we can't be blamed. Of course, we will still feel guilty. But we can't force ourselves to be with people we don't feel right with, babe. That would be the worst," he told her.

Beca didn't answer for quite awhile and George almost asked whether she was still at the other end of the line when she sighed again.

"You're a wise feller, George. Obnoxious sometimes but wise."

"I don't even know what you mean with obnoxious - but everything else comes with experience."

Beca nodded though she knew George couldn't see her, she thought it was better that he couldn't see her.

"George?"

"Hm?"

"Is there any way you could get away for a couple of days and come to Barden? I think I could need someone with your wisdom and experience the next couple days."

"Well, I haven't had a decent vacation since I started working for my uncle… I think I could arrange for a short visit with my dearest friend," he said and she could hear that he was delighted, not just to be able to spend time with her again but because she had asked him for help. Beca wasn't one to usually do that.

"That would be great, George," she told him but she lacked his enthusiasm. He knew it was because of her problems and not because she wasn't looking forward to seeing him.

"I'll ring you with the details tomorrow. Okay, honey?" he promised.

"Thanks, George. You're the best."

"I know I am. But, seriously, Becs, don't fret too much, okay? We'll sort it all out together, we'll sort you out," he said with a smile she could hear over the line.

She tried one of her own.

"Okay. Love you," she said in way of goodbye.

"Love you, too, sweety," he answered in kind before he disconnected to get a couple more hours of sleep.

Beca meanwhile stowed away her phone and looked up and down the deserted street. She pulled her jacket around her tight before she stood and walked back to the club where her friends were still busy partying.


	25. Plus One Makes Three

**A/N: Okay, somebody asked for a Triple Treble Drabble… you're welcome.**

* * *

They sat on the couch in the living room, munching popcorn, watching - in Chloe's case at least - some flick on the big-ass flatscreen tv there. Beca didn't mind the happenings on the screen much, she had her head rested on the redhead's shoulder and every now and then she indulged in a peek down Chloe's cleavage. It was all very innocent - she told herself.

Still, being interrupted at this point was kind of unfortunate because she had thought that after the margaritas they had had with the movie things might progress into a cozy direction tonight. Given, she hadn't made any move on her friend yet but considering the last time they had sat like this - when Chloe had whispered in her ear every once in awhile and had at some point placed a small kiss on her lobe - she had had hopes.

But then came the moment Aubrey came back from her date and by her demeanour as she stomped into the room, it had not been a successful one.

"Men suck!" she called out and slammed the door behind her, rousing Beca from her comfortable position very close to Chloe.

"That's not even news," Chloe deadpanned but still pushed the 'pause'-button on the dvd remote. "What happened?" She asked the tall blonde who stood still fuming by the door.

"Grubby hands," she answered. "I mean just because I've had a couple drinks doesn't mean he can go all headlights on me." Aubrey made a distinct motion with her hands.

"There's still some margarita in the shaker. Get yourself a drink and come sit with us," Chloe told her and nudged Beca who had her feet up on the couch. The brunette wasn't too happy to see her alone-time with Chloe cut short but she also wanted to be there for Aubrey… they had gone through a lot in the short time of their friendship and they had ultimately gotten closer (even if they still griped at each other in good fun).

Aubrey did as Chloe had told her and brought the almost empty mixer with her to touch up the other women's glasses.

"A toast," she then said and Beca had to grin at the slight slur she now heard in Aubrey's voice. Her date must have really spent some serious dinero to get Aubrey to this place - and she still wouldn't put out. Good on her! "To women, 'cause we rule. Men suck!"

"Hear, hear," Beca and Chloe said together and then grinned at each other.

They drank.

"What've you guys been up to?"

"Chick flick," Chloe answered and pointed at the tv.

"Should I leave you guys? I didn't mean to impose on your…," she grinned "… date." She then said and saw her friends sit up indignantly and about to protest. Aubrey laughed at them.

"This is not a date," Beca ground out. 'At least, it's not anymore now you ruined the mood,' she added in her head and looked angrily at the blonde.

"Of course, it ain't. 'Cause you guys are just friends, right?" Aubrey chuckled.

"Aubrey Lorraine Posen." Chloe warned but her best friend was really drunk and didn't take the warning seriously at all. She just giggled.

"Okay, if you're just friends Beca won't mind if I…" And instead of simply saying it, she took Chloe's face in both her hands and started kissing Chloe. It was a pretty sloppy, i'm-really-drunk-but-this-is-kinda-nice-kiss that lasted longer that either woman had maybe thought it would - if Chloe had thought about it at all. She was rather surprised when they parted.

"Bree?" she said questioningly while the older woman licked her lips, her eyes still closed.

"This was nice," she gushed and grinned. When she opened her eyes she looked into stormy dark blue ones. Beca was angry. "Oh, sweetheart, come on." She said and then leaned over Chloe and pulled Beca to her, kissing her now.

Beca certainly hadn't seen this coming, still, even completely drunk Aubrey was not a bad kisser, not at all. And when they finally parted, they all looked at each other rather flustered.

"Man, you're a nice kisser," Aubrey said to Beca.

"Erm, right back at yeh," the brunette stammered.

"Now you two kiss," Aubrey told her two friends commandingly. "Come on, you know you want to." And in truth they both did. Beca was looking at Chloe and it was the first time the redhead saw the longing in the dark blue orbs and she simply leaned in, capturing Beca's lips passionately.

It was certainly what they both had hoped for and then some. But there was still Aubrey who watched them and they were both aware that she was part of this somehow. They parted, breathlessly, and Aubrey chuckled.

"Now, that's what I call a kiss - and you're welcome," she said and drank the rest of her margarita. She looked at her friends a little sheepishly, then she put her arm around Chloe's neck and captured Beca's hands. "I really love you guys. You're my best friends," she told them.

"I love you, too, sweety," Chloe said and pulled Aubrey close, whispering something into her ear Beca didn't quite catch but it made the tall woman smile.

"I love you, too, Bree," Beca said and though it surprised her a little, she knew that it was true. She put her hand to the blonde's cheek, carressing it. She found herself strangely compelled to kiss Aubrey again, her lips were too enticing to resist and so she followed her instinct.

Another instinct told her to pull Chloe in as well and suddenly there were three pairs of lips and three tongues involved. And it felt good, and it felt right and Beca found that she wanted more of this - and by the way her friends reacted, so did they.


	26. Things Unthought Of

Beca stood at the bar waiting for her drink when she felt a hand on her ass and the distinctive forms of another woman press into her from behind. Her surprise, however, instantly vanished when she heard a familiar voice gush into her ear:

"Hey, Beca." It was Chloe, of course, and she seemed already beyond tipsy.

"Hey, Chlo. So, is that your hand on my butt?" Beca asked her friend good-naturedly.

"Uh-huh. I like your butt," she said and as her hand moved slightly from its place, Beca turned quickly. This brought Chloe quite a bit closer, now from the front.

"Oops," Beca mumbled as they bumped into each other and she peeled Chloe's hand from her behind. Chloe simply grinned at her before her eyes lowered to Beca's as usual pronounced cleavage.

"I like your boobs, too," she told her friend and moved her hands accordingly but Beca caught them before they could attach themselves to Beca's body parts.

"That's nice," the flustered brunette said.

"I really like you," Chloe whispered as if it was a secret.

"I like you, too, Chlo. You're very likable," the brunette assured but Chloe looked at her slightly crest-fallen.

"Yeah, you like me but you don't like like me," she said sadly and instantly her eyes filled with tears.

Beca now started to panic a little. She had never learned how to deal with very drunk, slightly needy people and she looked around the darkened party room for some help. Luckily for her, Aubrey didn't stand very far off, talking to Jessica. The tall blonde had lost track of Chloe after they had arrived together and she hadn't read the warning signs of an ealier conversation about Beca that her best friend might get hammered badly. As she now saw Chloe invading Beca's space and the brunette's panicked look, she reacted instantly.

"Oh, my," she breathed and came over to the bar, dodging a couple of dancing people. "Hey, Chloe," she said and pulled the redhead from Beca. The brunette looked relieved but Chloe tried to hold on to her.

"It's okay, Aubrey, Beca likes me," she said.

"Of course, she does. We all do, you know that," Aubrey reassured her friend. "Come with me. Let's go somewhere where we can talk and get you a coke, maybe?"

"I've been doing shots with Bumper," Chloe said and Aubrey rolled her eyes at the Trebles captain who, of course, would try to get some Bellas as drunk as he could get them.

"Come on," the tall blonde said and pulled Chloe behind her from the Trebles' party room in the cellar of the BTM-house. They went upstairs and Aubrey didn't realize that Beca was following them. She was, however, and as Aubrey pushed and pulled Chloe into one of the bedrooms, she waited infront of the door. It only took a minute for Aubrey to emerge again and she almost ran into the DJ.

"Is Chloe okay?" she asked the Bellas captain.

"Yeah, sure, she's good. Bumper, he always tries to get some of the girls drunk, otherwise nobody would even look at him. He's that kind of guy, you know, so be careful how much you drink with him. I'm going to get Chloe a coke, excuse me," the blond told Beca curtly and wanted to dismiss her but Beca touched the other woman's arm.

"What Chloe said…," she started but Aubrey interrupted her instantly.

"Oh, don't take her too seriously. She comes from a family with five kids and is sometimes a little needy. It's important for her that people like her," Aubrey explained quickly, in truth you could call it hasty. It became clear to Beca that Aubrey didn't want to talk to her and for once it wasn't even about her, it was about Chloe and what she'd said.

"That's not what she said, though, Aubrey. She said that she wanted me to like like her," Beca put the emphasis on the second 'like' as Chloe had done. "Is Chloe into me?"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Beca. Chloe is not… into you, okay?" But they both knew that she was lying, there was an urgency to her voice that told Beca plainly that Aubrey knew better than herself what Chloe felt for her.

But Beca wasn't sure if she wanted to know one way or another. What if Chloe actually did have feelings for her? Beca had never entertained the thought of anyone liking her much, she had always kept to herself mostly. Having someone liking her - having a woman liking her… she already felt overwhelmed by the possibility.

Aubrey looked at her, waiting for a reaction. Beca broke the eye-contact and took a step back.

"Okay, then," she said. "That's okay, I mean good… I mean… I mean…" she stammered and Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"What you mean is that you're not woman enough for someone as amazing as Chloe, Beca," the blonde told her, dismissing her once again as someone not suitable. And this time, Beca didn't have any arguments to the contrary.

Aubrey brushed by her and left her standing infront of the room where Chloe sat on the bed, thinking about Beca. The door between them seemed an impenetrable barrier to both women, though Beca knew that she would just have to turn the knob, open the door, see Chloe - really see her. Yet she wasn't ready.


	27. I'm Gonna Miss You (When You're Gone)

"Beca?" Chloe laid her hand on her friend's shoulder, alerting her to her presence. "I thought you had already left. I was afraid you had."

"No, I just didn't wanna say goodbye… with everybody watching," she confessed and Chloe nodded. She understood the sentiment but she didn't want to let the drama sink in because there really was no drama.

"Well, I'll be back before you know it to visit, so…"

"I'm not sure I'll still be here, Chloe," Beca interrupted her friend.

"What?! But…"

"Come on, Chloe, what am I really doing here? I'm biding my time. I love the Bellas but I didn't wanna be here in the first place and that hasn't changed just because we won the finals. Amy can take over, have Cynthia Rose help her… or maybe they could all just do it together, without a captain," she babbled in the face of Chloe's disappointed look.

"They can do it without a captain, Becs, but not without you. Can't you see that?"

"Yeah, well, they'll just have to deal. I have to get on with my life, my dream… I'm going to L.A.," Beca told the redhead.

"What is this really about, Becs?"

"Stop calling me that, nobody calls me that!" the younger woman groused.

"What is this really about, Beca?" Chloe repeated her question without missing a beat, without getting angry… as always Chloe just tried to understand.

"It's about me. I want to go live my life, that's all," Beca insisted.

Chloe took a step toward the smaller woman who looked down at her shoes and not at Chloe. She put a hand to Beca's cheek which was cold because she had been waiting outside while Chloe had said her goodbyes to the other Bellas - it had taken some time.

"Talk to me, Becs," she pleaded.

Beca shook her head slightly then more vehemently, trying to shake Chloe's hand off, trying to shake her sweetness of. Because it was for that same sweetness that she was standing out here, feeling broken, because she had let it in, let it warm her to the core. She had thought it was going to last but now Chloe left… left her.

"Please, Beca, my dad is going to be here any minute. Talk to me," she said again. Beca looked up and the hurt in those dark blue eyes hit Chloe right where it hurt the most.

"I can't be here without you," Beca said.

"Beca…"

"No, Chloe. I can't. You were the first… person who tried to be my friend here, on my first day. But I didn't want that because I was set on leaving… but you wouldn't let it go, wouldn't let me get away with it. You're the reason I'm still here, not the Bellas and not Jesse. You. I can't be here without you because it doesn't make any sense." Her voice sounded raspy from crying and Chloe didn't know whether it was from tears already shed or about to be shed. And this was the first time she herself actually felt close to tears. She had thought it would be easy and joyous - she had a job in Virginia, not too far from her parents, not too far from her friends at Barden and Aubrey. She would come visit often, they would all still be close via skype and multiple social media sites. She would still be there for them all, even if not always in person. But it was that last bit, that not in person, that now hit her.

She wouldn't be there to clap a shoulder, give a hug, hold someone's hand. Not when they were disappointed or victorious. She wouldn't be there to jump into someone's shower to get them to audition [though she was pretty sure that Beca would have remained the only example of this daring technique]… she just wouldn't be there anymore. And she would miss it more than she would have thought possible. And she would also be missed.

"Oh, Beca…" It was a sigh that escaped her and she pulled her friend into a tight hug, so as not to let her see her own tears that were now falling. Beca clung to Chloe desperately. "I wish I could… stay," she said but Beca shook her head.

"You can't stay… and I won't stay. I…"

"Stop it, Becs! You have to stay. You have to tell them all how great they are… even when they're just learning a new song and sound aweful. You have to reign in Amy when she's about to go overboard and whip their asses into shape and just be there for them. They need you."

"But I need you," Beca burst forth and surprised them both. "I mean… I… I really need you," she decided to be honest, consequences be damned.

"Beca," Chloe pleaded. The redhead put her hands to Beca's cheeks again, carressing them.

They heard a car approach. Since it was already after midnight on a weekday, it was pretty obvious that this would be Chloe's dad. Chloe pulled Beca into a hug again.

"Don't think I wanna leave, Becs. I don't. But I have to, and you have to stay. I promise I'll call… and skype and come visit. But, please, stay, Beca. I need you to stay and take care of the Bellas. They need you."

Beca just held onto Chloe.

The car had stopped where they stood huddled on the sidewalk but nobody's exited the vehicle.

Chloe stepped out of the embrace, or tried to because Beca still held onto her. It was painful for both of them to have the usually so reserved Bella clinging desperately to her friend.

"Please, Beca," Chloe said and Beca let her go.

"I'm sorry," she said and then she cupped Chloe's face between her hands and pressed her cold lips to hers for a long second before she let her go again, turned on her heel and ran down the street. Chloe looked after her in shock.

Then she became aware of someone approaching her from the car that had stopped next to them. She turned and her dad looked at her questioningly.

"Is everything all right, Chloe?"

Chloe simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't know. But she knew… nothing was all right and she couldn't stay to fix them.


	28. Slow Change May Pull Us Apart

**A/N: Okay, this has only Beca and Jesse in it but it's certainly no Jeca-fiction. I'm also being harsh on Jesse again, not that this is a new thing with me. I just don't like him very much, so, if you've got sensibilities invested in the guy - this is not the story for you.**

* * *

"No, Jesse! Just no, okay?" Beca left the bedroom in an angry stride, her boyfriend Jesse hot on her heels.

"Why not? It's not like you've never worn it before," he said, holding the reason of their discussion in his hand.

"That was for a performance, Jesse. I'm not gonna wear it so put it back," she told him plainly. She stood infront of the hall mirror putting her earrings in.

"Exactly, you've been wearing it for a performance, infront of hundreds of people, in public. So you can wear it tonight," he reasoned in his 'I'm the mature one'-voice that she hated so much.

"It's not about wearing that ridiculous thing in public, Jesse, it's about… it's a prop for a performance, not even a piece of clothing. For a performance you dress up as someone other than yourself. When I wore this I tried to be one of the Bellas - the old Bellas - and as Aubrey put it: I wasn't one of them, so…"

Jesse looked at Beca, raising both eyebrows and shaking his head a little.

"It's only a skirt, Beca," he told her.

"You don't get it, I'm not gonna wear it tonight of all nights, so, please, put it back," she gave back.

"But why put it back if you're never gonna wear it anyways? I could just throw it out," he suggested and looked at her challengingly.

"You're not throwing it out. First of all, it's not your, it's mine. And second, it holds memories. And now put it back," she asked him again and her voice was far from relaxed and easy. She didn't know why he was making such a big deal of her wearing pants to her first meeting with his parents. They were dress pants, too, not cheap and they looked good on her. The skirt was old and pretty standard flight attendant business wear… why Jesse would all of a sudden insist on her wearing the damn thing was a mystery. Well, maybe not too great a mystery… he was a man, he liked her in skirts, showing off her legs. And then there was the fact that he was slightly conservative and, well, that was usually not a characteristic that picked itself out of thin air. Beca guessed that his parents would probably be a little conservative, too. Still, not enough reason to wear a skirt, especially not that one.

Jesse had huffed indignantly and walked back into their bedroom. She heard him open drawers now - not a good sign. She looked at herself in the mirror once more and walked back into the bedroom. And, indeed, he was looking through her clothes not his own.

"What are you doing?"

"I was just looking for something," he answered evasively.

"I hope you're not looking for anymore of my flight attendant outfit because I'm not going to wear any of it," she warned. He only threw her a slightly annoyed look but kept on searching. "What are you looking for?"

"That sweater I've got you for your birthday. It would look great with those pants," he said and she closed her eyes for a moment, silently counting to three.

"It's not in there," she said.

He stopped his search.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"I lent it to a friend," she told him and could see the storm that was starting to brew in his expressive eyebrows.

"You lent it to a friend," he repeated. "Beca, that is a cashmere sweater. It was… pretty expensive."

"I know that, Jesse. It's just… when have you ever seen me wear teal?"

"What?"

"It's the color, Jesse. Teal is just not my color and anyway I never had an opportunity to wear it, so I lent it to Jessica. She looks good in teal," she explained and saw his eyebrows pull together.

"It was a present… from me," he slowly explained as if to a child who couldn't fathom the value of things.

"I know and I will get it back. Just not tonight," she told him and he closed the drawers he had opened. Then he sat down on the bed, shaking his head - in anger, probably, and not understanding her. He did that often - shaking his head and not understanding her. And he wasn't the only one, she did it, too.

"So, you're going to wear that… blouse?" he asked her after awhile, looking at the dark purple garment in question.

"It's not a blouse, it's a shirt, Jesse, and you know that." He knew and he resented the fact, she could see it. "Jesse, what is this about?" She asked him since he didn't say anything else. He looked at her for a moment, contemplating his options in answering her question.

"You're going to meet my parents tonight. I want you to get along with them. I want them to like you," he explained.

"And they won't if I'm wearing pants and a shirt?" she asked openly.

Jesse pushed his jaw forward like he so often did when he thought he had to be indignant, manly. He had strong sensibilities about his role in their relationship, she knew that, and she thought it was ridiculous - she had thought it endearing in the past.

"I just don't want them to think we're one of those couples who dress alike," he said.

"We're not dressing alike, Jesse. You're wearing a suit, with a tie and a jacket. I'm wearing dress pants and a shirt… we're not dressing alike! We're dressing like us, you like yourself, and me like myself. Or would you rather I dress like some chick form one of your romcoms, all frilly and cute? I'm not that girl, Jesse, and you know it. If you want some girly-girl why don't you call Stacie and have her act as me? You know, that's actually an excellent idea! Because I'm so over wanting to go to this… and obviously you don't want your parents to meet me, so…" Beca once again left the bedroom in long, angry strides. She couldn't believe how ridiculous Jesse was acting. She could understand him being nervous - she had been, too, when she had introduced Jesse to her mom - but she never would have thought that he was ashamed of her, that he would want her to act as someone she was not.

"Beca, wait. I… I didn't mean that and you know it." He followed her out of the bedroom again and touched her arm to stop her. She turned.

"You're ashamed of me," she accused him and saw him shake his head.

"That's not true, baby, I love you. You're amazing," he told her.

"But you think your parents will find me… what? Too boyish, odd, too 'alternative'?" He didn't answer right away and she had her answer. "Well, that's nice."

That was the moment their door bell rang, anouncing the taxi that was supposed to take them to the fancy restaurant where they were supposed to meet the Swansons.

"I'm sorry, Beca, can we just… get this dinner behind us? I really want you to meet my parents."

"Do you want them to meet me, too?" she asked. "Or do you want me to… dress and act like someone I'm not?"

"I want them to meet you, the real Beca, the only Beca. You," he told her but somehow she didn't quite believe him. And somehow it didn't feel as devastating as she felt it should have. They had gone through many stages during their relationship - getting to know each other, learning the other person, physically and mentally, living together… and it had brought them here - to a place where Beca wasn't even sure if she liked Jesse at all.


	29. Love Is Love

"I'm in love." Beca had never said these particular words before. They felt strange yet familiar, like relatives one had never met before but who still shared stories and gestures and DNA.

"You're in love? Wow, that's great, hon… I… Who is he?" And this was the question she had rather not had her mother ask her just now. After all, what did it matter who she was in love with? Couldn't they just talk about how great it was and how exactly she was feeling? Couldn't they start with easy stuff like that bubbly laugh that seemed to burst out of her every time that person touched her? Or maybe just the way she felt entirely stupid because she had to smile all the time? Those were easy, those were… normal. The question of who she wanted to be with, was with… was not. In a way… but then… it felt normal, and real and wonderful. Why should it even make a difference?

"Oh, you know… another student," she answered, very aware that she sounded lame. She wasn't really good at lying, at least not to her mother.

"What's his name? Have you told me about him before?"

"I might have mentioned…. him," she heard herself say and it was not good. It was, in fact, wrong. Why was she doing this? Yes, there was a difference to overcome here but it wasn't such a big deal. This difference made all the difference to her. It made the difference to the girl who never had said 'I'm in love' before. "Actually I have. Mentioned, that is."

"Beca, are you trying to be cryptic here? Just tell me his name, sweety," her mother asked good-naturedly and Beca wondered why she couldn't have guessed from her cryptic-ness what was going on. Why couldn't her mother guess the difference?

"No, I'm not trying to be cryptic, mom. Why would I be? I just… It's… I mean it's nothing bad or anything. I mean…"

"Please tell me you're not dating one of your teachers, Beca." Her mother's voice was now pleading. So strange. A second ago she was laughing at her daughter's antics and now she was pleading. What would her reaction be to the person her daughter was dating? Panic? Disgust? Acceptance?

"Mom, no, I'm not dating a teacher! Why would you… I told you it was a student. Just someone I'm… studying with… a nice, normal… girl. Chloe, that's her name. I've told you about her."

There was a short break. Then:

"Right, Chloe. She's one of the Bellas, right?"

"Yeah, she is. She's a soprano, very pretty," Beca confirmed, relieved but not to the point where she could relax back into her pillow. She was still sitting upright, trying to listen through this conversation, through her mom's feelings to know what this really meant for her.

"Well, I'm… I… Beca?"

"Yes, mom?" Beca felt her heart hammer in her chest, knowing this was the moment she would know whether her mom was okay with this or not.

"Are you sure? I mean, does she make you happy?"

"I'm in love with her, mom. She makes me… very, very happy. I'll send you a picture, okay?" And now it was Beca who was pleading her mother to understand, to accept, to respect her enough to be okay with the choice she'd made in her lover.

"Yeah, I'd like that, to put a face to the name. So, she's petty and a good singer… what else?"

"She's so many things, mom," Beca said, hearing for the first time how close she was to tears. Happy tears. She should have known her mom would understand… that love was love.


	30. Running Hot, Being Cold

It was just the ghost of a touch above her navel but it felt like the first touch ever to be shared between women. A moan worked itself free from Beca's throat and she looked at Chloe, looked into her eyes and saw her desire.

It was scary, at the same time irresistable. Beca's breathing hitched. She felt the need to say something, give a word of consent or encouragement but there were no words and Chloe didn't need them either. She smiled assured, assuring, like she knew. She always knew. From the moment they met she seemed to have known just what to do to turn Beca into liquid fire, yearning for the redhead's touch. Yet she wasn't a predator, she just took what was being offered willingly.

Chloe pushed Beca's shirt up a little, bowing deeply and kissing where she had touched before. It was an even more delicious touch than the one by her fingertips. How did this even work? Beca wondered. These feelings… they had never been there before, not simply by kissing and being kissed. They were new, they were all Chloe. And they seemed to be only the beginning, they grew exponentially with every touch, every kiss, or just a look from those incredibly blue eyes.

"Chloe," Beca moaned as Chloe's tongue licked over her heated skin.

"Yes, Beca?" the redhead answered and chuckled as Beca writhed underneath her. "What is it you want?" She pulled herself up and looked down at the short brunette.

"I want you, Chloe, just you," Beca answered and shuddered under the touch of Chloe's hand.

And that was when she woke, cold sweat covering her body, a moan on her lips from the intensity of the touch - the dreamed touch.

She pulled at the blanket that didn't cover her anymore, the cover that Jesse was hogging like he always did. She worked it free from his clutches and pulled it over her, waking him if only just.

"Hey, sorry, honey. You okay?" He shifted closer and pulled her to him with one arm.

"I'm good, a little cold," she answered as he already fell back asleep.

Beca didn't. She knew what would happen if she did. She would dream of things sultry and sexy, things that involved her best friend and kisses and touches that could never be, heat that would burn and leave scars.


End file.
